From time immemorial, we've been taught that the top 5 Chinese surnames, in descending numerical order, were - Chen, Li, Zhang, Wang and Ho. Looks like the Chen(s) have slipped a bit in their duty to procreate and the Ho(s) have dropped off the list all together !!

... do this mean that I can't tell people your mother's got more chins than a chinese phonebook? :P

Looking through the Beijing phone-book must give thousands of Wong numbers.

always amused me when i was learning mandarin, that "wang" meant "king"

my revision cards looked something like this

wang-king

how have i got this far in life being that purile??????

It's you might end up with a Ho if you Wing the Wong number...

To attract good fortune, spend a new coin on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend, and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.

Chinese Proverb ( - )

"[...] the western alphabet is strictly off-limits, meaning no Fleur de Lis or Brooklyn Zhous in the foreseeable future."

Be thankful for small mercies!

Man with hole in his pocket feel cocky all day.

I'm sure the register and it reader have great respect for Chinese cultural heritage and would not what to upset anyone. (That's stopped any of us getting kicked from BB)

However like the article, I cannot resist the letting the surname "Wang" (which is just great.) go without some comment,. Actually it's a reference to the Simpsons where Bart makes a prank call for Mei Wang, where Mo asks if anyone has seen Mei Wang. Just priceless, we owe a lot to Chinese heritage.

Just Wing it... (with apologies to my Chinese friends -- who no doubt have jokes about my name, too).

>a baby whose dad's surname was Zhou, the mother's Zhu, and who could therefore be called Zhou, Zhu, Zhouzhu or Zhuzhou

Isn't that the sound a saw makes???

China has survived thousands of years without its people needing unique identifiers in the form of names and it doesn't need them now -- every Chinese citizen has a unique 18-digit identification number. The real issue here is that the one-child policy is leaving families without a male to carry on the family line so there is pressure on girls to incorporate their family name in their children's names.

man with no front garden always look forlorn

could we ever forget the service program offered by Wang Computer in the 1980's: "Wang Care"

I was actually surprised at how many Pyrons there are. But when I went to "that website" (I can't remember), it told me there were exactly 0 Dillon Pyrons. So not only am I unique, I'm nonexistent.

... man who run through airport revolving door is surely going to bangkok

China has survived thousands of years without its people needing unique identifiers in the form of names and it doesn't need them now -- every Chinese citizen has a unique 18-digit identification number. The real issue here is that the one-child policy is leaving families without a male to carry on the family line so there is pressure on girls to incorporate their family name in their children's names.

Funny thing is, Western countries that don't use double surnames also get lots of similar-named people. Think "John Smith", yet, I don't see the US, UK or others adding second surnames.

Spanish-talking countries (and maybe Arab countries?) use a composite father and mother surname, thus enabling the ability to reduce the name collision. (Incidentally, my dad's got my name, if we used our first surname, we'd have the exact same name. Insane!!!)

One of their top men is called "Poo Bum-suk"

Could be used for amusement in trade talks.

My name is Glenn Alexander (note the two n's). Someone at my college called Glen Alexander (one n) dropped out and so my student record gets accidently trashed %-S

All fixed now :-)

BTW- Glenn Alexander are both given names - I have no surname. You should see what THAT does to this 'multicultural' country's computer infrastructure ;-P

Actually, it isn't pronounced wang. It's more like 'wong' which, as has been mentioned already, means king.

Chinese Pingying, which is the 'western' version of the written language, doesn't have the same sounds as the actual western alphabet does, hence the confusion. Eg. 'Zhou' sounds more like 'Jo'.

Not sure this story is quite right?

I spent a fair bit of time in Chia a few years ago and one of my Chiness pals told me that they had a unique numerical identifier (which also tied them to a specific place if I remember right).

It seems that Chinese folks can change their Western (if they have one) and also Chinese names if they wish.

I also recall that the vast majority of Chinese folks share something like twenty or thirty surnames (there are many more but just not used as much) - certianly I recall sitting in meetings where most of the folks were either called Mr Liu (pronouncdd Leo) or Ms Wang

Closer to home

Isn't half the the Welsh phone book full of Jones's

for example in hungary every person has a numerical id, that contains their gender, their birthday, some other info and a unique serial number that comes from the order of data entry into the main citizen registry database. There are special id tags for peoples addimtted into the system later in their lifes, so foregin people could be recoginesed by the authorities based on their numerical id. This system was used for everyday identification in the past, but now not all official documents carry this id (it's only in the address section of the id cards), but the main database can still connect the tax records, the social security payments, the registered voters database, the bank records and most commercial subscriber databases to each other because every database have to use the numerical id, because that's the only thing that is globally unique for every citizen.

For the chinese, it would be a better idea to use two given names, so people could be identified more easily. This would result in names containing three parts, but it's much easier to implement than composite surnames.

Just to add to the hole in the pocket gag,

Man with hole in each pocket, no feel two cocky

and for all the budding chinese chefs, there is a new chinese cookbook available entitled "How To Wok Your Dog".

it's a bit late to comment , I mean this was *last week's* news, but I think it's worth to mention that , as an Italian Resident , people are required to get the "Financial Identity Card" known as a Codice Fiscale. It's an anagram of your name consonants and birthdate with codes for your country of birth and a checksum, within 16 digits. This number must be quoted in all financial transactions.

The growing numbers of Chinese in Italy are currently forcing a redesign of the Codice Fiscale as there are increasingly identical 16 digit codes being produced, the horribly beweaponed "Guardia di Finanza" are not amused.

(Disclaimer : I was arrested by the G.D.F for buying a VAT free bottle of water)

Oh, there were also recently riots in Milan by the Chinese community when the G.D.F tried to enforce the VAT laws...