Hello everyone,

People in different cultures have different kinds of names .And most people have family names or surnames ,which you share with your parents and children .

I find it is an interesting topic ,the origin ,the meaning ,the traditions,etc .

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My family name is 張 ，always spelt as Zhang ,Chang or Cheung  in English .

(You can find it there in Wikipedia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_(surname))

It means widening bow.And I wonder the origin ,since I can just find tales and legends:

In short ,a son of an emperor invent a bow ,then he got it as his surname .There is the whole story in Wikipedia ,the same as I heard .

I used to believed it means ' a long bow ' as the character  consists of ‘ long ’ and 'bow' in modern standard chinese. XD

Anyway ,origins of most Chinese family names  are names of  particular places.

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What names do people have in your culture ?
What the story behind your family name ?

Do you interested in stories of family names ?