A modern Chinese usually has a surname (“family name”）or xing and a given name (“first name”or“Christian name”），or ming（or mingzi），always in that order.Thus Deng Xiaoping is Mr. Deng with the personal name Xiaoping the same way John Jones is Mr. Jones with the personal name John.

现代中国人的姓名通常由姓（家庭姓氏）和名（个人所起的名字）组成,并 且姓在前，名在后。因此，邓小平被称为邓先生，个人的名字为小平。 正如约翰•琼斯被称为琼斯先生，个人的名字为约翰。

In ancient China, however，naming was very complicated and one person usually had several names, and naming involved xing, shi, ming, and zi.Each of these four words meant a different thing.

在中国古代，起名非常复杂。 一个人可以有好几个名字，包括姓、氏、名、字。每一个都表达不同的意思。

Xing and shi together formed today's surname, and ming and zi today’s given name.Today, people use xingshi to refer to a person’s surname，mingzi to refer to one's given name.

姓和氏演变为现在的姓，名和字则演变为现在的名。所以现在人们通常用姓氏来指一个人的姓，用名字来指一个人所起的名。

Study of ancient Chinese documents shows that xing originally referred to the names of different matriarchal tribes.It also had something to do with the place where people lived.Researches show that xing came into being during the matrilin-eal society period, i. e. , around four to five thousand years ago.

据对中国古代文献的研究表明“姓”最初被用来指不同的女氏族长部落。和人们的居住地也有某些关系。研究表明，“姓”出现于母系社会时期，大约四千至五千年之前。

Nearly always the family name (surname) is one-syllable long.The only common modern surnames that are two-syllables long are ouyang and sima.

几乎所有家庭的姓都是一个音节，常见的两个音节的姓有欧阳、司马等。