每个国家都有自己的姓名文化，中国人也不例外。现代汉族的姓名是由姓氏和名字组成的。

Every nation has its own culture of names. The Chinese nation is no exception. The names of the modern Han nationality consist of a surname and a personal name.

　　早在5000多年前，汉族就已经形成了姓氏，但最早的时候，“姓”与“氏”不同。姓起源于母系社会，同一个母亲的后代，用同一个姓，所以汉族最早的姓大都带有女字旁，比如，姜、姚、嬴等。氏产生在父系社会，例如，黄帝，姬姓，称为轩辕氏；炎帝，姜姓，称为列山氏。

As early as over 5,000 years ago, the Han nationality acquired its surnames, including xing and shi. But at the beginning xing and shi were different. Xing originated in a matrilineal society. The descendents of the same mother used the same surname. As a result, the earliest surnames of the Han nationality have, in the most part, a lateral radical “女” (female), for example, “姜” (Jiang), “姚” (Yao), “嬴” (Ying), and so on. Shi came into being in a patrilineal society. For example, Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) was addressed as “Xuanyuan Shi”, but his surname was “姬” (Ji); Yandi was called “Lieshan Shi” with “姜” (Jiang) as his surname.

　　汉族姓氏分为单姓和复姓两种，以单姓为主，复姓很少。1000多年前，宋代学者编写的《百家姓》是中国有名的启蒙读物，其中共列出单姓444个，复姓60个，共计504个。不过，这个数据并不完整，经过统计，目前汉族使用的姓氏大约有3000个左右，其中李是人数最多的姓，其他如王、张、刘、陈是常见的单姓，诸葛、欧阳、司马等是常见的复姓。

The Han surnames are divided into two types, single-character surnames and compound surnames, with the former outnumbering the latter. Over a 1,000 years ago, a scholar of the Song Dynasty compiled One Hundred Surnames, a popular rudimentary book in China, in which were listed 444 single-character surnames and 60 compound surnames with 504 surnames in all. However, this data was by no means complete. According to a survey, the surnames used by the Han Nationality amount to about 3,000 with “李” (Li) being the most numerous, to be followed by other often-used single-character surnames “王” (Wang), “张” (Zhang), “刘” (Liu) and “陈” (Chen). Popular compound surnames are “诸葛” (Zhuge), “欧阳” (Ouyang), “司马” (Sima) and so on.

　　中国人在取名字的时候，很注重含义。比如用福、贵、健、康等字，是希望孩子健康幸福；用杰、才、德、仁等字，是希望孩子能成为有才有德的人。名字一般也区分性别，虎、山、雷等字属于男性，丽、英、凤等字属于女性。中国许多家族还有家谱，家族中的男性成员都使用某个规定的字作为名字的一部分。

In giving a personal name to a child, the Chinese people attach importance to its connotation. For example, the characters “福” (fu), “贵” (gui), “健” (jian), “康” (kang) mean that the child may grow healthy and happy; “杰” (jie), “才” (cai), “德” (de), “仁” (ren) express the hope that the child may grow up to be a capable and virtuous person. Personal names are usually characterized by sex with “虎” (hu), “山” (shan), “雷” (lei) and other character for males and “丽” (li), “英” (ying), “凤” (feng) and so on for females. Many clans or families have kept family trees. The male members of a clan or a family should use the character stipulated in the family tree as a part of his personal name.

　　中国古代有地位的人，除了名字，还会有字和号，现代社会就很少见了。

In ancient times, people of high position also had a style and an alternative or literary name in addition to his surname and personal name.