Mom is a Li, dad was a Liew. I'm so mainstream it hurts.

@nehcooahnait7827

5 жыл бұрын

Try being an aisin-gioro or a random Mongol without a surname....

@Lm_867

4 жыл бұрын

my grandparents both had wang last names ;-;

@moretonesverdes

3 жыл бұрын

My dad is a Liy but I guess that’s a typo, right?

Yeah I've heard of the discrimination against Chinese in Indonesia. It's some scary stuff.

@tonyau3360

3 жыл бұрын

Sadly, most people had to hide their surnames to stay safe, especially in big cities. That's why the Indonesian romanizarions are so weird & changed so much. This applied to other peoples, but the Chinese were hit the hardest.

@user-cn3gd7gf7v

2 жыл бұрын

And that's me!

@PinoyAbnoy

2 жыл бұрын

@@tonyau3360 is it still happening today?

@tonyau3360

2 жыл бұрын

@@PinoyAbnoy People tend to follow their parents. If their parents hid it, they hide it. If their parents showed it, they also show.

@PinoyAbnoy

2 жыл бұрын

@@tonyau3360 are your parents pure chinese living in indonesia?

Chinese last names so much more fun than "Smith"

@sammythehamster9093

7 жыл бұрын

Yep hehe

@katiel7762

6 жыл бұрын

Max Li #LiFam

@DieFlabbergast

4 жыл бұрын

But not half as much fun as Cholmondeley-Smythe!

@user-rh2pv2kc5g

4 жыл бұрын

Chinese did have some surname like smith....it is ouyang欧阳 engineer who's give a small land and became the minor lord during 8bc....

@particleonazock2246

2 жыл бұрын

Mainly because you can actually study the geographical distribution of the surnames at the regional and national level. It is very exciting.

18 common Hmong surnames Cha - Zhang Cheng - Ching Chu - Zhu Fang - Fan Hang - Han Her - He Khang - Kang Khue - Ge Kong - Gong Lee - Li Lor - Lau Moua - Mao Pha - Pan Thao - Tao Vang - Wang Vue - Wu Xiong - Xiong Yang - Yang

@mandaloretheangry9043

6 жыл бұрын

thanks

@particleonazock2246

3 жыл бұрын

I always thought Cha was a Korean surname, or a Cantonese form of the uncommon Chinese surname, Zha.

I'm Yap, or Yip in cantonese..meaning Leaf. I came from the Leaf village from Konoha and Naruto's my ancestor nice to meat you alls

@miniClover1

9 жыл бұрын

Lols ahahaha

@sueyuan5681

9 жыл бұрын

S.K Yap lol hahahaha ...so 叶 in simplified Chinese and 葉 in traditional.

@theobuniel9643

8 жыл бұрын

+S.K Yap It's "Ye" in Mandarin.

@SKYap-xv9vu

8 жыл бұрын

Theo Buniel Yeah "Yap" is hakka and hokkien. I'm hokkien. but my main jutsu is canton :D

@andrewliu3111

8 жыл бұрын

+S.K Yap Dude that spider looked hella real :O I got stunned for a second lol

As a singaporeon myself The tan family is humongous. In a class of 42 students (my class) at least 10 were tans 42 including non chinese students (about 15)

@jianxiongRaven

2 жыл бұрын

ikr

@amorayyyyy

Жыл бұрын

My name is so hard to find. If I happen to find someone with the same surname as me. We are most likely related. Lol.

the moment when your Chinese surname and your friends last name is the ones said in the video....

Wu -> Oh in korean so it would be Oh Kris and Oh Sehun XD

@maddymartin2240

8 жыл бұрын

+Korily L. Grondin I realized that too lol

@zzyy666

8 жыл бұрын

+Korily L. Grondin omg

@ronaldmcdonald8890

8 жыл бұрын

OMG

@quinnb1881

7 жыл бұрын

oh yeah :)

@vivianwu408

3 жыл бұрын

exo-ls unite!! unfortunately, my surname 'wu' is 胡

In high school, I had two Chinese friends that were siblings, but the romanization of their surnames were different. One had Zhang and the other Chang. A lot of our classmates were confused when we found out they were siblings. They said that the reason behind it was because their family moved between their births. If I remember correctly, the younger sibling had the surname Chang and we were told he was born in Hong Kong.

I'm a Chen! Vietnamese: Trần Thanh Huy Chinese: 陳清輝 Chen Qing Hui

@NTDOffTheGreatWall

10 жыл бұрын

Nice name!

@thaaaaaanh

10 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@thaaaaaanh

9 жыл бұрын

***** thanks! :) I don't really know what you mean with poetic ring, but yeah.

@blake4129

8 жыл бұрын

+Thanh Huy Tran I'm a Chen too!! Vietnamese: Tran Truongsong Chinese: 陳長江

@khangvuong8757

8 жыл бұрын

+Ryo Fukuda 福田亮 Your name in Vietnamese is Tran Truong Giang (Trần Trương Giang), because "Song" is originally Vietnamese word, but when you stranlate a name that contains Chinese Affected pronunciation, It is Giang. Anyway it is a nice name :)

They have Huang in Korea too (Hwang). Count as one of the common last names.

@michaelwong4303

2 жыл бұрын

In fact nearly all Korean surnames are found in Hans Chinese people. Would you believe that the surname Kim (meaning gold in Chinese) also exists among Chinese people? And the structure of Korean names is similar to traditional Chinese in having 3 words/characters. These Korean names also exist among Chinese people: An, Cho, Choi, Chung, Hong, Hwang, Jang, Jee, Jeon, Jeong, Kim, Lee, Moon, Roo, Shin, Song, Youn, although the pronunciation will be different.

@riza-2396

Ай бұрын

​@@michaelwong4303Yes, for example Li/Lee is pronounced as Yi in Korean

I love your videos. Especially mentioning overseas Chinese (Indonesia etc.) Love it! Keep it up!

Oh this is very interesting! :D Thanks for adding the other language versions (like Taiwan, Korean, Hmong, etc.) of the Chinese names too!

This is so interesting and informative, thanks for uploading this! :)

So I guess wu explains exo kris and in korean (oh) sehun lol

@WarriorQueenful

9 жыл бұрын

OMG ME TOO...

Awesome! I've been interested in this since I've started learning Chinese and met Hongkongers and I went on exchange to Singapore. The romanization really keeps the heritage even when (especially in Singapore) the people already only speak Mandarin or English. Then again it seems like a lot of people don't know that Vietnamese names are based on Chinese characters as I have experienced that my Vietnamese mate took a Chinese name on my Chinese class without knowing his name is translatable.

Chen… Chen.. CHENCHENCHENCHENCHEN :DDD

@JlingTang

9 жыл бұрын

XD

@kimimon9057

6 жыл бұрын

Celiphany it's mean hot

@LingLing-pn3us

4 жыл бұрын

No Chin

My grandmother was from Pampanga in the Philippines and her maiden name was “Tiongco” which is the Spanish transliteration of “Zhang co” Thanks for the history lesson!

Good Job....Thanks for sharing

Great video! I think you should make a video on all surnames in the 百家姓! It would take too long to explain every surname's origin, but I think an interesting video can still be made on the subject.

where is Lin/Lim/Lam...thought it is quite common lol..

@Sammy-up4kc

7 жыл бұрын

I'm a Lam xD

@Sammy-up4kc

7 жыл бұрын

I'm a Lam xD

@yyvl222

7 жыл бұрын

+Sammy yah same

@dr.simonliem8975

6 жыл бұрын

I am Lin 林. In Teochew is Lim, but in Indonesia the spelling is Liem. :)

@yyvl222

6 жыл бұрын

+Simon Liem that I how lam is spelt in chinese

OMG the moment you realise your friends from different ethnics actually have the same surname as you! Hahaha

Thank you! that would've made more sense had he mentioned that. much appreciated

Thanks for including the Teochew surnames! :D

my Chinese surname is 蔡 (Cài) Cantonese: Choi Korean: Chae Japanese: Sai in Indonesia (my country): Tjoa

@Pyroshark

7 жыл бұрын

I love your profile pic ;)

@WindyVinzy

7 жыл бұрын

:D

@Patroclus27

7 жыл бұрын

That should be Chua in Singapore

@KC-sk6tz

6 жыл бұрын

That’s my last name My name is Xiaolin cai English name Kelly Cai 蔡晓霖

@Frenzybug

6 жыл бұрын

In Vietnamese, yours would be “Thái” or “Sái” when written in Romantic alphabet 😜

Any other Liaos here? 廖 It's Liu in Cantonese. My surname is ranked 67th in China, 18th in Taiwan. Any idea how it ranks among the Chinese/Taiwanese in the US? Growing up, I never heard of any Liaos except for me and my relatives. But over the years, it seemed more Liaos have moved to the US. If you come across a Liao, chances are they have Taiwan roots. But I've met some Liaos from the Mainland, too.

Sooo informative. Thank you

Great video!:) If possible, I would love to watch another episode of rare chinese surnames or surnames with 2 characters, etc. Cheers!

Another interesting note: The Hokkien incarnation of the Zhang/Chang/Cheung surname--Tiu--should also be added to fully appreciate the number of people bearing that last name. :)

חֵן (meaning "grace") is common as a surname in Israel because it comes fr. a Semitic root (חָנַן). The fact that 陳 becomes חֵן when put in Hebrew characters turns out as just a coincidence. And thank you for the video!

Cool! I love seeing the linguistic connections not only across the various Chinese languages, but the whole of East and Southeast Asia.

This was really interesting. Thanks for the information. Could you do a similar video on most common first name for women and men?

My mum is a Lee & me, taking my dad's name, I am a Yap (evidently) which translates into 'leaf'. It's uncommon but I know of other people with that surname in Malaysia (where my parents are from). Or maybe they're family on my dad's side. I haven't met or know the names of any family on my dad's side.

I'm a Yang ;3 That's interesting info. Pretty crazy how a lot of Asians from different ethnicities have same last names even if pronounced/written differently..

@adeho789

6 жыл бұрын

Norixciii Do you know if Yang and Ying are closely related? I'm biologically a Ying, but have no information on my family/name.

@particleonazock2246

3 жыл бұрын

@@adeho789 People that share a surname don't necessarily have the same biological relation, so I'm unclear as to what you mean by "I'm biologically a Ying." Ying (嬴 and 應) are quite rare Chinese surnames, and definitely less common than the surname Yang. From what I've read, the surname Li derives from the surname Ying, but I'm not too sure about that.

@adeho789

3 жыл бұрын

@@particleonazock2246 My biological father's last name is Ying. I've heard it's rare. But I see several men online with his exact name. And thank you for your reply. :)

@particleonazock2246

2 жыл бұрын

It is mainly due to the limited number of Chinese characters. Most Chinese surnames are single-character. Hmong, Korean and Vietnamese surnames are all derived from Chinese characters. The distribution of Chinese surnames is relatively uniform, as cultural tradition passed surnames from generation to generation. China's rapid population growth allowed an increase in the proportion of people bearing the same surname. You can find out more about this under surname research on Zhihu.

Well that is so true! Even here in Indonesia, we chinese indonesian have those surnames. I'm Yang, my mom is Chen, most of my friends are either Wang, Lee, Liu, Zhao, and Hwang, well mostly Chen. but most of us have our chinese surname in Hokkien romanization.

I Love this video :) Hope you can make some more with this layout :D

I guess the joke " you have more chins than a Chinese phone book" doesn't apply

@user-iq9pe4ls2j

9 жыл бұрын

lol jin is the 64th most common surname.

Cool, i'm the first surname 王(Ong) my Dad is Hokkien origin. Majority of M'sians/S'poreans are with surname Ong(Hokkien) or Wong (Cantonese). I've explained countless times to foreigners why my surname is Ong instead of Wang/Wong (王). A famous S'porean singer is called Olivia Ong.

Great video! I'd love to know about 翁 please !

Very interesting to know!

haha... I wish I'm on Big Bang. One of my fav shows!

HIGH FIVE!! for Yellow!! You stay awesome my sista from another motha

You guys should make a video describing the cognate (shared) words between Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese--how would you describe the origin of each language and how they relate. Can most East Asian languages be written using traditional Chinese characters?

I'm a Wesley, its Anglo-Saxon for "west meadow/field". The last art of the name 'ley' is the same as the Scottish surname "Lee" both meaning meadow or field

Thanks for letting us know, I don't know Hebrew so I didn't want to attempt to say it :P

so i've been Frank Zhang's name wrong for a long time..... oops?

@greywaren6034

3 жыл бұрын

Well not really. English pronounce it the way you’ve probably have been, with a Zang and silent h. So the rest of the 7 also said like, shut up Zzang (I’m using this example because they say shut up [insert last name] a lot) the way you do. But his grandma would pronounce it with a J-like sound (more or less).

Such informative. I was expecting you relate the names with popular people like Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Wow, I forgot you made a surname video as well. I started doing it as well, although just listing a few every week, without their back story. When I get a bit more artsy I might include backstory as well though. :P

An American-born 趙 (Zhao) here. It's an uncomfortable surname to have growing up in America, but 3000+ plus years of history and #1 entry in the 百家姓 "encyclopedia" is good enough for me.

@mavisgarland8609

6 жыл бұрын

I'm a Canadian born Zhao written Chu here, but remember uncles called Joe and Jew who I was told were the same surname as us.

@jonahs92

3 жыл бұрын

@@mavisgarland8609 As a Jew (the ethnic group and race), I find it funny that there are people with a last name like that.

@mavisgarland8609

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonahs92 All due to the immigration officers writing down what they think they heard.

張/张： Zhang (Mainland), Cheung (Hong Kong), Chang (Taiwan)

Good job guys for including a Vietnamese version. I'm Chinese but I have many Vietnamese friends, some of them can speak Cantonese, it is interesting to know that some of the common VN names are derived from Chinese.

right cool! Thanks so much! I thought i was going crazy

My surname 岳 (Mandarin: Yue, Shanghainese/Contonese: Ngok) is really rare! i'd never met anyone who has the same surname, except my relatives. It means "big mountain", and it is, according to a legend, from a minister of Huangdi (黃帝,aka the Yellow Emperor) who was in charge of administering all the tribes with the title 四岳(four mountains). The only famous historical personage of my surname is general Yue Fei (岳飛), a famous national hero.

@foxxxzy5

9 жыл бұрын

there is a famous comedian called 岳云鹏

I'm a Li Chinese name: 李永漢 Li Yong Han Any other Li here?

@alanlee11

7 жыл бұрын

我的名字是李小龍,跟BRUCE LEE 一樣. 哈哈哈, 你是印尼的華人嗎?

@gumgum1931

7 жыл бұрын

WE ARE BROTHERS

@johannhartono1092

7 жыл бұрын

Alan Saputra 對

@alanlee11

7 жыл бұрын

Johann Hartono 在雅加達嗎？

@johannhartono1092

7 жыл бұрын

Alan Saputra 不是. 我住在Tangerang. 但是我是Magelang人. 你呢？

thanks for mentioning and including the Hmong version of Wang --> Vang!

Thanks for put up their ^_^

Korean legend tells me that my surname 박(朴) [commonly spelled Park, but pronounced "bak"; pronounced "piao" in Mandarin] came about when the first king of Shilla (most likely spelled Silla in your history textbook), was born. His story: "When the people (of the 6 villages) gathered to pray for a king, a white horse emerged from a bolt of lightning, bowing to a shining egg. After the horse flew back to heaven, the egg opened and the boy Park Hyeokgeose emerged. When he grew up, he united six warring states. [His surname supposedly came from people describing the sound that the egg made when Hyeokgeose came out of his shell.]" So yeah... A more credible theory to the origin of my last name is from the Korean adjective stem 밝- (balk-, bark-), which means "bright". If anyone knows how my name is pronounced in different languages, I'd love to know!

@Harvey_Anderson17

8 жыл бұрын

one of my chinese friend pronounce 朴 as "Pu"

@archkde

8 жыл бұрын

+Chosen Azs Austria ah yes, I learned the other day that "pu" is also used frequently.

@limhian-tong5199

8 жыл бұрын

+Chosen Azs Austria It is Piao in Mainland China, and Pu in Taiwan

@Harvey_Anderson17

8 жыл бұрын

Hian-tong Lim​ thank you for the info...  yes my friend is from Taiwan . Hehe

@joethesimple685

5 жыл бұрын

Nice. That one is common in Korea.

My name is Vương, which is Wong/Wang! Its a rare Vietnamese surnames tho...

@kimimon9057

6 жыл бұрын

Phuong Nhi Angel Wong means people

@kimimon9057

6 жыл бұрын

Phuong Nhi Angel its high for Malay Wan is close to King blood line another surname is tuan Does Vietnamese using tuan as surname ?

interesting and i love that you put the taiwanese/korean/vietnamese... version with it :D

you guys should do one for compound Chinese names, they're really rare and get angliced in weird ways like sometimes Ouyang=O'young

Chen in Hebrew is not pronounced like "chen", but more like "Hen". No one wants ti be called a heb though and so some present themselves as "Chen" when they meet native English speakers. Moreover, this is a relatively new last name, only from the last few generations. In the 50s the young state of Israel accepted into it many refugees from Arab countries (some forget nowadays how jews were treated there, maybe because the of the holocaust, idk) and of course holocaust survivors. In 1949, more than a million refugees arrived at Israel (twice the total number of Jews in Israel in 1948). Those who lived in Israel had to support the newcomers. To deal with the variety of cultures in a short amount of time, the government encouraged a "melting pot" policy. Unfortunately, it ended up more like a "become like X" policy. Anyways many felt pressured to switch their last name into a Hebrew word - in honor of returning to the ancient homeland. (It's a tiny part of an overall dillemma - how to rebuild a national unity from ancient times when no one remembers what it was like the last time jews had a national home in Israel?) Anyways, those names are very new. חן is popular because it has a very positive meaning - something between grace, beauty and kindness. Plus it's an old word, and it is in the bible. The "Chen" you refer to would be written in Hebrew as צ'ן.

@jonahs92

3 жыл бұрын

נכון מאוד!

the Hokkien for 李 is Dy or Dee! hahaha

@justinlim524

3 ай бұрын

lee works too its the pronunciation. Hokkien Ls and Ds sound very similar

thanks!

I've been a great fans! Thank you for mentioning my country Indonesia =)

//Quietly shares video

有冇人姓梁呀？

so interesting!

Thanks. Great video. I'm looking up our surname, which is "Ou" 區.

Anyone else a quek/kwek?

@user-fq9hq8db2c

4 жыл бұрын

Danial Bass 郭

Hey! Vietnamese! Woo!

0:56 Lý* 3:48 Can also be read as Chu

You guys are actually so awesome :D I love your videos so much :) please don't ever stop making them!!! They're always so interesting :)

lol my last name isn't in this video

My surname isn't in the list Yay! My surname is 何

@nelswolf

8 жыл бұрын

how do I type characters on toutube

@sammythehamster9093

7 жыл бұрын

Neither is mine, pronounced different in Mandarin. When I was on holiday in HK I came across list of all these Surname for customized Teddie.

@sammythehamster9093

7 жыл бұрын

Cantonese Wu, Mandarin is Hu it means beardy

@eatham2261

4 жыл бұрын

@Nelson Jiang If you are on a phone, you either get the pinyin or jyutping keyboard. You can also get a keyboard where you right the character with your finger. If you are on a computer or laptop you need to get the pinyin or jyutping keyboard.

Wow you guys even added hmong! Im surprised haha, awesome :3

ah this is interesting~ my mom told me a while ago that european last names have different meanings to them too, like her maiden name is waugh and that derives from the scottish and english being seperated by a wall and the people who lived near there being called the wall people. names starting with mc mean son of, so a name like mcdonald means son of donald. its so cool that we can learn about our ancestors with just a name

I'm a Wong :3

Why no Xu?!

@katiel7762

6 жыл бұрын

Cheryl Xu that's my mum's last name

@jessicasun2058

6 жыл бұрын

I know two xu's

@kathyxu1513

6 жыл бұрын

Aka the surname that no one can correctly pronounce. XD

@particleonazock2246

3 жыл бұрын

Xu is the 11th most common surname, concentrated in south-east China.

Can you make a video about middle names/first names?

Can you make a video on the four classics?

And I'm just mind blown when I compare the Vietnamese with the mandarin and Cantonese and realize they're the same

@TanNguyen-cb2he

6 жыл бұрын

Actually, Sino Vietnamese is a little bit like Cantonese.

@yourmother8775

6 жыл бұрын

it would be easier if vietnamese don't get rid of chinese characters :)

Szeto/Situ anyone?

@archkde

8 жыл бұрын

SeeTowSam Are you talking about 司徒? If you are, that's SO COOL! I've never actually met someone with a compound last name before! :D

@AstroLynkz

8 жыл бұрын

ArchKDE Yup :) I think there are many 司徒 in Canada and America.

@indiegogurt

6 жыл бұрын

My little is!

Can you make a video about Chinese geography or the different dynasties?

Fascinating.

Mine is: Mandarin=Huang Cantonese=Wong Hokkien=Ooy Philippine Hokkien=Uy

Can you guys give me the chinese characters of my chinese name pls? I'm half chinese (Hokkien) but I don't know any.. LOL! It's embarrassing. My chinese name is Teh Siew Yuet.. My mom said my chinese name 'Siew Yuet' means Little Moon.. So yeah,I'd reaally appreciate it if you guys can help me out here.. ^^

@hax3904

9 жыл бұрын

It's 小月 （xiao yue) i don't know the writing of your surname though, hope it helps!

@sonialouiseteh6725

9 жыл бұрын

Willson Yohatha Yup! Thnx! ^^

@YummYakitori

9 жыл бұрын

I think "Teh" might also be alternatively romanized as "Tay", which is 郑 in the Hokkien dialect.

@sonialouiseteh6725

9 жыл бұрын

YummYakitori what about Siew Yuet??

@foxxxzy5

9 жыл бұрын

Tsteless KooKie 小月 is a cute name

We pronounce it "chow" or "dzow" in Cantonese (the sharpness/roundness of the initial sound depends on which Cantonese-speaking part of China you're from). The "teo" part can also be pronounced differently depending on the area (I pronounce it as "tsiw"; a sharper initial sound).

very interesting.... in the UK our most common surnames are probably Smith, Jones and Brown... my own family name- Hazlett.... is very rare

Some people believe Asians throw a pot down the stairs when the baby is born and adopt the sound - Ding Dong, first born of the Bang family!

@sassymotherfluffer2558

8 жыл бұрын

+ionicafardefrica how bang yongguk came to have his name^

@adeho789

6 жыл бұрын

ionicafardefrica What did they throw to get the name ying?

Interesting !!! What is Teochew ? Thanks

I'm curious about the last surname of Zhu, since that's also fairly common (not too common, but enough to pop up every so often). May you explain a bit about the history of that name?

It's an interesting topic. As an overseas chinese, I can trace my family's migration to the country of my birth to my grandfather flight from china (actually boat ride) back in the 1920s during the turmoil during the early part of the formation of the republic of China. Perhaps the chinese diaspora would be an interesting topic to talk about in OtGW, since there are is a sizable community of Chinese descent in many nations

ive done a dance called zhao qian sun li (my dance team got first place in some kind of competition lol :P) and its kinda like this! it talks about school and surnames of china

Fun fact: My name was inspired from Sky Wu (伍思凯）a famous Taiwanese singer and was declared the best male Chinese singer on 2004(which is the year I was born) but changed the 伍 to 陈。 Another fun fact: I didn't know my name was inspired by him until this year. My nickname Sky was given by myself when I was 13 years old. So, I'm called SkyTan. What a bloody coincidence.

Oh, that's really interesting! It could well be phonetic or near-phonetic - it was given to me by one of my Chinese teachers to complete my application for a Chinese university. The association with water carries over to my English family name though, which I like!

Cool!

Hey, Carmen, is it possible for you to list the 100 Chinese surnames out in the comment? I'm curious to see if mine is inside.

Can you guys make a video about the top 10 rarest chinese surnames?

Can you make a video on traditional Chinese medicine, Carmen?

I think it's most likely due to dialect, where in Malaysia there is the stronger tendency for the Chinese here to romanize the surnames according to how they are pronounced in their own dialects, and Ting is how 陈 is pronounced in the Fuzhou dialect. Strangely, while my paternal grandfather's surname was romanized as Ting, his brother's surname was romanized as Tan; this is most likely due to clerical error as they both entered Malaysia (Malaya at the time) via Singapore.