Why are there so many Wongs?

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-09-01 10:05am

So I've spent most of my day sorting out enrollment forsm for a new batch of students in Hong Kong.

There's 90 students, but appear to be very few different surnames. Wong is common, as is Chan and Leung.

Now, I haven't done any actual investigation into possible sampling error, apart from a cursory glance over our list of 230-odd Uk students, but no surnames are anywhere near as common in the UK list as some of the ones on the HK list.
I know nothing about the relevant culture, so I'm throwing it out to see if anyone has any input.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-09-01 10:12am

It's a common surname? It's sort of asking why there are so many Smiths or Jones' in America.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-09-01 10:16am

Gil Hamilton wrote:It's a common surname? It's sort of asking why there are so many Smiths or Jones' in America.

Well, no - did you read my OP?
No name in the sample of 230 UK students is anywhere near as common as Chan, Wong or Leung is in my sample of 80.

I was just wondering if there's a reason this sample is so rich in certain names.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-09-01 10:20am

Maybe it was simply a freak chance. Or perhaps there are fewer Asian names to go around.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-09-01 10:23am

3rd Impact wrote:Maybe it was simply a freak chance. Or perhaps there are fewer Asian names to go around.

that's what I was thinking. I was hoping someone could explain why. Are family allegiances stronger, or is it just that our westren ears and alphabet can't convey the difference between 'Wong' and 'Wong' (:))

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-09-01 10:30am

Aren't you asking why there are so many people with a certain surname in your sample group? What I mean is that if those surnames are very common in Hong Kong, then it's not unreasonable that your sample group would reflect that.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-09-01 10:33am

Gil Hamilton wrote:Aren't you asking why there are so many people with a certain surname in your sample group? What I mean is that if those surnames are very common in Hong Kong, then it's not unreasonable that your sample group would reflect that.

Yes, but I have a much larger sample of UK students, and there are no Smith or Jone. The most common surname (Johnson) does not occur nearly as often as Wong does in the HK group (there's even a Wong in the UK sample).
Now, assuming each sample is representative of the population (which I'm not saying it necessarily is), then there seem to be fewer names to go around in HK, or at leats that the most common names are MUCH more common than in the UK.
I was just wondering why?

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-09-01 10:49am

innerbrat wrote: I was just wondering why?

Edit: misunderstood your post...nothing to see....

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-09-01 10:52am

I see. I guess I don't rightly know. I'd have to do more research on the matter.

aronkerkhof · Post by **aronkerkhof** » 2003-09-01 11:48am

The real question is... WHY ARE THERE SO MANY MIKE WONGS???

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2003-09-01 11:59am

*Shrug* Because every parent wants their kid to be Mike Wong?

Demiurge · Post by **Demiurge** » 2003-09-01 12:12pm

Having the surname Wong makes one more likely to survive and reproduce. Damn, I wish my name was Wong, or Smith or Jones.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-01 12:23pm

Wong is a common surname in China. The last name Wong can either mean "yellow" or "king" you can't tell unless you see the actually character. I dont know why Wong is a common surname, but I can tell you that there is a small amount of common surnames from China.

Ive been told that in the past your last name represented the village you where from, but I dont know how realistic that is. Old ladies have lots stories.

An interesting side note, is how the name is written in English can often tell you if the person is from a Cantonese speaking region or Mandarin speaking region. This translation method harks back to the days when the Western powers had enclaves in China.

ie) People named Wong, Chan, and Fong are often from Hong Kong or Canton regions.

People with the same name but spelled Wang or Chen are usually from Northern China or Taiwan.

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2003-09-01 12:27pm

Because, there's a lot more Wong with the world than Wright.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-09-01 12:28pm

Trytostaydead wrote:Because, there's a lot more Wong with the world than Wright.

You should be flayed.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-09-01 12:38pm

I think T.P. Jawa may be onto something, there. Considering the significance of the color yellow in Chinese culture. And "King" and variants of it is a somewhat common surname in almost any language I can think of, so, could this be it?

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-09-01 12:47pm

Trytostaydead wrote:Because, there's a lot more Wong with the world than Wright.

I know a Wright. I know her very well.

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2003-09-01 12:48pm

Frank Hipper wrote:I think T.P. Jawa may be onto something, there. Considering the significance of the color yellow in Chinese culture. And "King" and variants of it is a somewhat common surname in almost any language I can think of, so, could this be it?

Well, considering Chinese would amount to at least a fourth of the world's population.. there are a number of common last names for the Chinese which would equate to finding a hell of a lot of them around the world.

I don't know exactly whether "King" would be a common surname or not.. but there are certain last names that are unique to actually only a handful of people that represent actual lineage.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-01 12:49pm

Frank Hipper wrote:I think T.P. Jawa may be onto something, there. Considering the significance of the color yellow in Chinese culture. And "King" and variants of it is a somewhat common surname in almost any language I can think of, so, could this be it?

Certain shades of yellow are symbolic of the Emperor "king".

The other reason why some names are so common, is certain regions in the past have traditionally had large amounts of emmigration. Especially the Canton region. However, why names like Chan and Wong are the equivelent of Smith is still a guess for me.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-09-01 12:56pm

Smith & Jones were title names for descendants of the blacksmiths (Exempt from Draft) and those who retunely performed the most disgusting duties (heck of a lot of them, and they were also exempt from draft)-thus unlike the majority of the peons they got to have oodles of kids, then you get place names, honor names, clan names etc.

Of course I have the fun one having the German title name for "Jester"/"Joker" get's me into Batman cover art lots of times.

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-09-01 01:05pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote: Ive been told that in the past your last name represented the village you where from, but I dont know how realistic that is. Old ladies have lots stories.

Tricky on what the old ladies are talking about...

1. Every surname has an ultimate origin, though not everyone of that surname cares about it.
2. IIRC Some same surnames even have different origins.
3. If a family is big enough they become the village. "Village Wong"...etc
4. After reading this thread I made some search on the net...Wong is a very very common name in Hong Kong. They even have several family homepages.

ie) People named Wong, Chan, and Fong are often from Hong Kong or Canton regions.

People with the same name but spelled Wang or Chen are usually from Northern China or Taiwan.

And if it's the "Yellow" Wong, it is spelled "Huang" as the Mandarin pronounciation.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-09-01 01:11pm

If you think that's bad you should find a sample of Vietnamese people and look up the last names "Tran" or "Nguyen."

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-09-01 01:13pm

Trytostaydead wrote: I don't know exactly whether "King" would be a common surname or not.. but there are certain last names that are unique to actually only a handful of people that represent actual lineage.

"King" is a very common surname.

And yes there are some very unique ones, so unique that there must be a long story behind them.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-01 01:59pm

phongn wrote:If you think that's bad you should find a sample of Vietnamese people and look up the last names "Tran" or "Nguyen."

Hehe, tell me about. The Vietnamese population in San Jose is one of the largest ( 2nd I think) populations outside of Vietnam itself. Although, a decent amount of the people from Vietnam here are ethnically "Chinese" which leads some confusing accents.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-09-01 02:26pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:Smith & Jones were title names for descendants of the blacksmiths (Exempt from Draft) and those who retunely performed the most disgusting duties (heck of a lot of them, and they were also exempt from draft)-thus unlike the majority of the peons they got to have oodles of kids, then you get place names, honor names, clan names etc.

Aren't the spanish names Herrera and Fernandez also title names for blacksmiths??