A surprising share of China shares a small set of names. Knowing the popular ones is useful, both as a starting point and as a list of names you might want to step slightly away from.
Surnames: a few cover hundreds of millions
The family name comes first, and the most common ones are carried by enormous numbers of people:
- 王 (Wáng), king, one of the most common surnames in the world.
- 李 (Lǐ), plum tree.
- 张 (Zhāng), to stretch or draw a bow.
- Together with names like 刘 (Liú) and 陈 (Chén), these cover a huge slice of the population.
Given names move in waves
Given-name fashions shift by decade. Certain bright, virtuous characters surge for a generation, which is why a whole cohort can share very similar names. Beautiful, yes, but sometimes so common that a classroom has three of them.
Popular is not the same as right
A trendy name dates, and a very common one blurs into the crowd. The goal is not to pick the most popular characters, but the ones that fit you and still sound natural.
A name that is yours, not the trend
Instead of copying a popular name, build one around the element your birth chart leans on, with characters that are real and well-loved but chosen for you.
Get a Chinese name that fits you, not the trend, chosen around your birth and the five elements. Free.
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