Wang,Li and Zhang are the three most popular surnames in China If you've ever worried about running into someone with the same name as you, then spare a thought for the Wangs, Lis and Zhangs of this world, whose names have just been declared the three most popular in the country. The results of a nationwide survey, released yesterday by the Ministry of Public Security, show that there are some 92.8 million Wangs in China, about 7.25 percent of the population, making it the nation's most popular. Li came in second with 92.07 million (7.19 percent) and Zhang third with 87.5 million (6.83 percent). Aside from the top three, the survey found that a further seven names are each used by more than 20 million people: Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou. Twelve more have between 10 million and 20 million owners: Xu, Sun, Ma, Zhu, Hu, Guo, He, Gao, Lin, Luo, Zheng, Liang. The most common 100 names account for 84.77 percent of the population, which is about 1.3 billion. The ranking was conducted according to the national household registration system, which includes ethnic minorities, but excludes Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Du Ruofu, a retired researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said: "As the first national survey of surnames, the results are precious." Du published a book on Chinese surnames, the genetic differences between people from North and South China and Chinese linguistics in 1992. "The new survey is more accurate because of its larger scale," Du said, comparing it to his own research conducted in 1987, which was based on a sample of about 500,000 people. In Du's research, Li, Wang and Zhang again held the top three spots, accounting for 7.9 percent, 7.4 percent and 7.1 percent of the population, respectively. (China Daily)

如果你曾为会与别人重名而担忧过，那你可以想想那些姓王、姓李、姓张的人，他们的姓是全中国最普遍的三大姓氏。 公安部昨天公布的一项全国性的调查结果显示，王姓是我国第一大姓，约有9280万人，占全国总人口的7.25%。 李是第二大姓，共有9207万人（7.19%）；张为第三大姓，有8750万人（6.83%）。 除这三大姓外，姓氏人口数超过2000万的姓依次为：刘、陈、杨、黄、赵、吴和周。 姓氏人口数在1000万至2000万之间的共有12个，包括：徐、孙、马、朱、胡、郭、何、高、林、罗、郑和梁。 百家姓的人口总数占总人口的84.77%，约为13亿。 这一排行根据包括少数民族在内的全国人口户籍登记制度编纂而成，但不包括港、澳、台地区。 中科院退休研究员杜若甫说：“此项有关姓氏的首次全国性调查的结果很有价值。” 杜研究员曾于1992年出版了一本有关中国姓氏的书，重点探讨了北方人和南方人的基因差别与汉语言学之间的关系。 杜若甫曾于1987年开展过一项针对50万人的抽样调查，他说：“这项最新调查范围更广、更加准确。” 根据杜若甫1987年的调查，李、王、张依次为全国的一、二、三大姓，分别占人口总数的7.9%、7.4%和7.1%。 （英语点津姗姗编辑）