Wang remained the most common surname in China in 2019, followed by Li and Zhang, according to a report on Chinese names released by the country's Ministry of Public Security on Monday.
China's Ministry of Public Security released its report on Chinese names in 2019. /Screenshot from the official website of China's Ministry of Public Security
The report is based on an analysis of statistics from China's population information system, which is the world's largest, covering the nation's 1.4 billion people, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The literal meaning of Wang is "king," and it was a surname used by royals and privileged families in ancient China.
Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou rounded out the ten most common surnames in China.
Wan and Ou made their debut on the top 100 list. They are the family names of 2.75 million and 2.61 million Chinese people respectively.
According to the report, 85.9 percent of China's registered population bears one of the top 100 surnames.
Top 100 surnames in China in 2019. /Photo via the official website of the Ministry of Public Security
The report also revealed the most common names in China. Zhang Wei is listed as the most common name, which is used by 252,224 men and 42,058 women in the country.
Top 10 names in China in 2019. /Photo via the official website of Ministry of Public Security
With the exception of some members of ethnic minorities in China, the names of the registered Chinese population is usually made of two to four characters.
Those with three-character names account for 84.3 percent of the Chinese population, two-character names make up 14 percent, and four-character names consist of 0.7 percent.
The most common baby names in China in 2019 reflect parents' wishes towards their kids.
In traditional Chinese culture, given names often encapsulate parents' wishes towards their children.
For baby boys, the most common given name was Haoyu, which means "vast universe," having been bestowed on 20,102 newborns. For baby girls, Yinuo, which usually means "Being true to one's word," ranked first, with 27,778 infants given this name, according to the report.
2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China. It's quite common for Chinese people to include the character "guo," which means "country," in their given names to express their love to their motherland.
As of December 31, 2019, a total of 21.27 million people's names included "guo," of whom 17.69 million were men, almost five times that of women having the same character.