[3] The old lineage (shi) and clan names (xing) began to become "family names" in the modern sense and trickle down to commoners around 500 BC, during the late Spring and Autumn period, but the process took several centuries to complete, and it was not until the late Han dynasty (1st and 2nd centuries AD) that all Chinese commoners had surnames.

[6] This homogeneity results from the great majority of Han family names having only one character, while the small number of compound surnames is mostly restricted to minority groups.

Apart from the Jiang (姜) and Yao (姚) families, the original xìng have nearly disappeared but the terms ironically reversed their meaning.

The enormous modern clans sometimes share ancestral halls with one another, but actually consist of many different lineages gathered under a single name.

Including variant forms, there are at least 106,000 individual Chinese characters,[11] but as of 2006, in the People's Republic of China Public Security Bureau only approximately 32,000 are supported for computer input[12] and even fewer are in common use.

Given names are chosen based on a range of factors, including possession of pleasing sound and tonal qualities, as well as bearing positive associations or a beautiful shape.

Two-character ming may be chosen for each character's separate meaning and qualities, but the name remains a single unit which is almost always said together even when the combination no longer 'means' anything.

[13] Given names resonant of qualities which are perceived to be either masculine or feminine are frequently given, with males being linked with strength and firmness and females with beauty and flowers.

People from the countryside previously often bore names that reflect rural life—for example, Daniu (大牛, lit.

For example, as part of the class entering the National Drama School in 1933, Li Yuru adopted a name with the central character "jade" (玉).

For example, in the Jia (賈) clan in Dream of the Red Chamber, a novel mirroring the rise and decline of the Qing dynasty, there is Zheng (政), She (赦), and Min (敏) in the first generation, Lian (璉), Zhen (珍), and Huan (環) in the second, and Yun (芸), Qin (芹), and Lan (蘭) in the third.

Owing to both effects, there has also been a recent trend in China to hire fortune tellers to change people's names to new ones more in accordance with traditional Taoist and five element practices.

Although experiments with the complete conversion of Chinese to the Pinyin alphabet failed,[18] it remains in common use and has become the transcription system of the United Nations and the International Organization for Standardization.

Proper use of Pinyin means treating the surname and given name as precisely two separate words with no spaces between the letters of multiple Chinese characters.

Correct reading depends on the inclusion of superscript numbers and the use of apostrophes to distinguish between different consonants, but in practice both of these are commonly omitted.

In Hong Kong, Macau, and the diaspora communities in southeast Asia and abroad, people often romanize their names according to their own native language, for example, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hakka.

During British colonial rule, some adopted English spelling conventions for their Hong Kong names: "Lee" for 李, "Shaw" for 邵, and so forth.

As a result, the upper classes of traditional Chinese culture typically employed a variety of names over the course of their lives, and the emperors and sanctified deceased had still others.

[citation needed] Upon birth, the parents often use a "milk name" (乳名; rǔmíng, 小名; xiǎomíng)—typically employing diminutives like 小; xiǎo, lit.

One especially common method of creating nicknames is prefixing Ā- (阿) or Xiǎo (小) to the surname or the second character of the given name.

As binomial nomenclature is also called xuémíng in Chinese, the school name is also sometimes now referenced as the xùnmíng (訓名) to avoid confusion.

Upon maturity, it was common for educated males to acquire a courtesy name (字, zì or 表字, biǎozì) either from one's parents, a teacher, or self-selection.

The era name (年號; niánhào) arose from the custom of dating years by the reigns of the ruling emperors.

Under the Han, the practice began of changing regnal names as means of dispensing with bad luck and attracting better.

The hierarchical titles of junior relatives are seldom used except in formal situations, or as indirect reference when speaking to family members who are even younger than the person in question.

Because old people are well respected in Chinese society, lǎo (old) does not carry disrespect, offense or any negative implications even if it is used to refer to an older woman.

Despite this, it is advisable for non-Chinese to avoid calling a person xiǎo-something or lǎo-something unless they are so-called by other Chinese people and it is clear that the appellation is acceptable and widely used.

Otherwise, the use of the person's full name, or alternatively, their surname followed by xiānsheng (先生; 'mister') or nǚshì (女士; 'madam') is relatively neutral and unlikely to cause offense.

[citation needed] A traditional practice, now largely supplanted, was choosing deliberately unpleasant given names to ward off bad omens and evil spirits.

Although these names are rarely used in formal contexts, there are a few public figures who are well known by their nicknames, including former president A-bian and the singer A-mei.