Feature · Names
Taiwanese Names
1,785 surnames, four spelling systems, and names written back into their own languages
One name can have four spellings on a passport, and every one of them is official. This page takes a name apart: the family, the generation, the sound, and who gets to decide.
- Wade–Giles WANG, HSIAO-MING
- Hanyu Pinyin WANG, XIAO-MING
- Tongyong Pinyin WANG, SIAO-MING
- MPS II WANG, SHIAU-MING
Family name first, given name after. Nothing in between.
Family name first, given name after: the order is the only rule
A person’s legal name in Taiwan is the one on the household register, and the law allows exactly one.[8] It is usually a one-character family name followed by a two-character given name. There is no middle name and no patronymic. If you have just met someone called Chen Yi-chun, she is Ms. Chen.
Which part is the family name?
The first. The Name Act puts the surname before the given name with no space or symbol between them.[8] Of 1,785 surnames in use, 118 are two-character compounds held by 27,404 people; the most common are 張簡 (Changchien), 歐陽 (Ouyang) and 范姜 (Fanchiang).[1] In English text some people flip the order, so look for the hyphen: in “Tsai Ing-wen” the hyphenated pair is the given name.
How long is a name?
509,868 people, 2.18% of the population, have a single-character given name. 2,638 people have names longer than six characters (not counting names divided by a dot or space), and 92.42% of them are Indigenous.[1] The official report does not break down two-, three- and four-character names.
Marriage does not change a surname
Under article 1000 of the Civil Code each spouse keeps their own surname, and may add the other’s in front by written agreement.[13] 918,462 people (3.93%) still carry a spouse’s surname this way; 99.86% of them are women.[1] So a mother and her children usually have different surnames.
The English name is not on the register
Many Taiwanese go by an English given name at school or work. It has no legal standing. The Latin-letter name in a passport is a transliteration of the Chinese name; an “alias” line can carry one more.[6]
Chen, Lin, Huang, Chang, Li. By the tenth name you have counted half of Taiwan.
Ten surnames cover 52.79% of the population
Every few years the Ministry of the Interior counts every name on the household register. The latest count, for 30 June 2023, found 1,785 surnames among 23.37 million people.[1] They are shared very unevenly.
The top ten cover half; the top hundred cover 96.62%
Cumulative share of population, surnames ranked by number of bearers
- Surnames 1–10 52.79%
- Surnames 11–20 15.83%
- Surnames 21–100 27.99%
- The other 1,685 surnames and unclassified names 3.38%
2,618,994 people are named Chen, 11.21% of the population. Chen and Lin together make 19.54%, about one person in five.[1] By the hundredth surname the running total is 96.62%.
The other end of the list is long. 268 surnames have exactly one bearer, and 750 surnames, 42.02% of all surnames, have ten or fewer.[1]
One person in nine is a Chen
The twenty most common surnames, number of bearers (30 June 2023). Spelled in Wade–Giles, with Hanyu Pinyin in brackets where it differs
Data table
| Surname | People | Share of population |
|---|---|---|
| 陳 Chen | 2,618,994 | 11.21% |
| 林 Lin | 1,947,520 | 8.33% |
| 黃 Huang | 1,402,808 | 6% |
| 張 Chang (Zhang) | 1,239,880 | 5.3% |
| 李 Li | 1,199,920 | 5.13% |
| 王 Wang | 955,035 | 4.09% |
| 吳 Wu | 935,684 | 4% |
| 劉 Liu | 737,607 | 3.16% |
| 蔡 Tsai (Cai) | 684,531 | 2.93% |
| 楊 Yang | 617,799 | 2.64% |
| 許 Hsu (Xu) | 540,929 | 2.31% |
| 鄭 Cheng (Zheng) | 440,767 | 1.89% |
| 謝 Hsieh (Xie) | 412,657 | 1.77% |
| 洪 Hung (Hong) | 352,942 | 1.51% |
| 郭 Kuo (Guo) | 350,072 | 1.5% |
| 邱 Chiu (Qiu) | 343,469 | 1.47% |
| 曾 Tseng (Zeng) | 338,779 | 1.45% |
| 廖 Liao | 315,819 | 1.35% |
| 賴 Lai | 310,053 | 1.33% |
| 徐 Hsu (Xu) | 294,723 | 1.26% |
Chen leads in 20 of 22 counties and cities; Lin leads in Yilan and Yunlin
Large character: the most common surname locally. Small characters: surnames in the local top ten that are not in the national top ten
In the two blue tiles the leading surname is 林 (Lin). The orange characters are surnames found only in local rankings, for example 游 (Yu) in Yilan, 彭徐曾 (Peng, Hsu, Tseng) in Hsinchu County, 許洪呂 (Hsu, Hung, Lu) in Penghu and 曹鄭 (Tsao, Cheng) in Lienchiang.
Data table
| Lienchiang | 陳、林、王、曹、劉、張、李、黃、吳、鄭 | 68.67% |
| Taipei | 陳、林、張、李、黃、王、吳、劉、楊、蔡 | 51.95% |
| Keelung | 陳、林、張、李、黃、王、吳、劉、楊、許 | 51.46% |
| Taoyuan | 陳、林、黃、李、張、吳、劉、王、楊、邱 | 48.3% |
| New Taipei | 陳、林、李、黃、張、王、吳、劉、蔡、楊 | 53.36% |
| Yilan | 林、陳、李、黃、張、吳、游、楊、王、劉 | 61.07% |
| Kinmen | 陳、李、林、黃、蔡、楊、許、王、張、吳 | 60.31% |
| Hsinchu City | 陳、林、黃、張、李、吳、楊、王、劉、蔡 | 50.53% |
| Hsinchu Co. | 陳、林、黃、張、劉、李、彭、吳、徐、曾 | 48.15% |
| Miaoli | 陳、林、黃、張、劉、李、吳、徐、邱、謝 | 51.65% |
| Taichung | 陳、林、張、黃、王、李、劉、吳、蔡、楊 | 55.55% |
| Hualien | 陳、林、黃、張、李、吳、劉、王、楊、曾 | 51.05% |
| Changhua | 陳、林、黃、張、李、許、王、吳、楊、劉 | 53.35% |
| Nantou | 陳、林、張、黃、李、吳、劉、王、洪、廖 | 53.77% |
| Penghu | 陳、許、林、洪、蔡、吳、王、呂、黃、李 | 56.07% |
| Yunlin | 林、陳、李、張、吳、黃、廖、許、王、蔡 | 63.94% |
| Chiayi City | 陳、林、黃、李、蔡、吳、張、王、劉、許 | 54.52% |
| Chiayi Co. | 陳、林、黃、蔡、張、李、吳、劉、王、許 | 54.91% |
| Tainan | 陳、林、黃、王、李、吳、張、蔡、楊、郭 | 56.25% |
| Kaohsiung | 陳、林、黃、李、吳、王、張、蔡、劉、楊 | 53.2% |
| Pingtung | 陳、林、黃、李、張、吳、王、潘、蔡、劉 | 51.38% |
| Taitung | 陳、林、李、黃、張、王、吳、楊、劉、蔡 | 50.47% |
Local rankings differ from the national one. Chen is the largest surname in 20 of the 22 counties and cities; in Yilan and Yunlin it is Lin.[1] The report lists the distribution without explaining it, and this page does not fill that in.
How it is counted The report treats variant characters such as 黃 and 黄 as separate surnames; we follow it. Indigenous traditional names and transliterated foreign names (8,089 people) are not ranked as surnames.[1]
Hear the name and you can guess the decade.
Shu-fen was born in the 1960s, Ya-ting in the 1980s, and Pin-yen is still at school
The most common given name for women is 淑芬 Shu-fen (31,879 people); for men it is 家豪 Chia-hao (14,038).[1] Sort the bearers of any popular name by year of birth and they crowd into about twenty years.
A new set of names every decade
The three most common given names in each birth cohort. Counts are people of that name still on the register on 30 June 2023, not births. Spelled here in Wade–Giles as in the official table; real passports vary (see Spelling)
| Born | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| 1921–1930 ROC 10–19 | 秀英 Hsiu-ying 340 玉蘭 Yu-lan 263 · 玉英 Yu-ying 201 | 金龍 Chin-lung 46 金水 Chin-shui 44 · 金生 Chin-sheng 40 |
| 1931–1940 ROC 20–29 | 秀英 Hsiu-ying 2,237 玉蘭 Yu-lan 1,704 · 梅 Mei 1,614 | 正雄 Cheng-hsiung 768 文雄 Wen-hsiung 760 · 武雄 Wu-hsiung 673 |
| 1941–1950 ROC 30–39 | 秀英 Hsiu-ying 5,026 秀琴 Hsiu-chin 4,444 · 美玉 Mei-yu 3,851 | 武雄 Wu-hsiung 2,262 正雄 Cheng-hsiung 2,216 · 文雄 Wen-hsiung 2,053 |
| 1951–1960 ROC 40–49 | 麗華 Li-hua 11,120 秀琴 Hsiu-chin 8,813 · 秀英 Hsiu-ying 7,661 | 金龍 Chin-lung 2,427 進財 Chin-tsai 2,101 · 榮華 Jung-hua 1,983 |
| 1961–1970 ROC 50–59 | 淑芬 Shu-fen 14,492 美玲 Mei-ling 13,562 · 淑惠 Shu-hui 12,531 | 志明 Chih-ming 4,577 志成 Chih-cheng 3,360 · 文雄 Wen-hsiung 2,530 |
| 1971–1980 ROC 60–69 | 淑芬 Shu-fen 10,644 雅惠 Ya-hui 10,471 · 淑娟 Shu-chuan 8,424 | 志偉 Chih-wei 4,847 志明 Chih-ming 4,739 · 建宏 Chien-hung 4,231 |
| 1981–1990 ROC 70–79 | 雅婷 Ya-ting 11,310 怡君 Yi-chun 8,316 · 雅雯 Ya-wen 5,983 | 家豪 Chia-hao 4,864 志豪 Chih-hao 3,964 · 志偉 Chih-wei 3,531 |
| 1991–2000 ROC 80–89 | 雅婷 Ya-ting 5,797 怡君 Yi-chun 3,575 · 怡婷 Yi-ting 3,183 | 家豪 Chia-hao 4,039 冠宇 Kuan-yu 3,603 · 冠廷 Kuan-ting 3,399 |
| 2001–2010 ROC 90–99 | 宜蓁 Yi-chen 2,629 欣妤 Hsin-yu 1,643 · 詩涵 Shih-han 1,610 | 承恩 Cheng-en 2,997 承翰 Cheng-han 2,636 · 冠廷 Kuan-ting 2,452 |
| 2011–2020 ROC 100–109 | 品妍 Pin-yen 2,421 子晴 Tzu-ching 2,087 · 詠晴 Yung-ching 2,001 | 承恩 Cheng-en 2,215 宥廷 Yu-ting 2,036 · 品睿 Pin-jui 2,021 |
| 2021–2023.6 ROC 110–112 | 品妍 Pin-yen 355 苡菲 Yi-fei 306 · 雨霏 Yu-fei 301 | 恩碩 En-shuo 469 宥廷 Yu-ting 366 · 子睿 Tzu-jui 327 |
Top ten for every cohort (data table)
| Born | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| 1912–1920 | 英 7、玉英 6、梅 5、月妹 4、玉蘭 4、招治 4、金 4、珠 4、不 3、秀英 3 | 德成 3、文山 2、丙丁 2、安 2、金才 2、金旺 2、金龍 2、俊 2、春森 2、康 2 |
| 1921–1930 | 秀英 340、玉蘭 263、玉英 201、玉 187、梅 175、月英 164、彩雲 155、月娥 145、秀琴 139、金枝 137 | 金龍 46、金水 44、金生 40、水木 38、清泉 31、金木 29、添福 29、傑 29、榮華 29、福來 29 |
| 1931–1940 | 秀英 2,237、玉蘭 1,704、梅 1,614、秀琴 1,547、雪 1,472、玉英 1,434、月娥 1,329、玉 1,245、秀蘭 1,242、菊 1,197 | 正雄 768、文雄 760、武雄 673、義雄 545、金龍 354、金水 337、俊雄 323、國雄 314、秀雄 284、正義 263 |
| 1941–1950 | 秀英 5,026、秀琴 4,444、美玉 3,851、秀蘭 3,553、月娥 3,459、秀鳳 3,296、玉蘭 3,017、玉英 2,863、秀美 2,841、月英 2,702 | 武雄 2,262、正雄 2,216、文雄 2,053、義雄 1,606、勝雄 1,182、國雄 1,041、金龍 982、正義 958、茂雄 914、進財 905 |
| 1951–1960 | 麗華 11,120、秀琴 8,813、秀英 7,661、秀美 7,540、麗珠 7,308、美玉 7,201、美珠 6,953、美華 6,674、秀鳳 6,602、淑貞 6,472 | 金龍 2,427、進財 2,101、榮華 1,983、進興 1,912、明輝 1,839、明德 1,781、文龍 1,659、進發 1,640、聰明 1,629、文章 1,544 |
| 1961–1970 | 淑芬 14,492、美玲 13,562、淑惠 12,531、美惠 10,137、淑娟 9,094、淑貞 8,820、麗華 8,459、美華 8,215、麗娟 8,173、淑華 7,998 | 志明 4,577、志成 3,360、文雄 2,530、明德 2,415、明輝 2,400、金龍 2,380、俊雄 2,258、志宏 2,255、文龍 2,221、國華 2,196 |
| 1971–1980 | 淑芬 10,644、雅惠 10,471、淑娟 8,424、淑惠 8,277、雅玲 7,624、美玲 7,240、怡君 5,703、美惠 5,575、雅雯 5,473、淑華 5,160 | 志偉 4,847、志明 4,739、建宏 4,231、志豪 4,161、志強 3,939、俊宏 3,806、志宏 3,615、俊傑 3,211、志忠 3,152、家豪 2,667 |
| 1981–1990 | 雅婷 11,310、怡君 8,316、雅雯 5,983、欣怡 5,271、怡婷 4,626、雅惠 4,177、雅玲 3,906、婉婷 3,586、佩珊 3,435、佳蓉 3,155 | 家豪 4,864、志豪 3,964、志偉 3,531、宗翰 3,254、建宏 3,149、俊傑 3,122、俊宏 3,030、冠宇 2,104、家銘 1,980、信宏 1,903 |
| 1991–2000 | 雅婷 5,797、怡君 3,575、怡婷 3,183、雅雯 3,084、詩涵 3,006、鈺婷 2,775、怡萱 2,729、雅筑 2,700、郁婷 2,600、宜庭 2,555 | 家豪 4,039、冠宇 3,603、冠廷 3,399、承翰 3,008、宗翰 2,831、柏翰 2,594、彥廷 2,502、冠霖 2,114、俊傑 2,084、承恩 1,918 |
| 2001–2010 | 宜蓁 2,629、欣妤 1,643、詩涵 1,610、思妤 1,561、雅婷 1,439、宜庭 1,394、佳穎 1,375、品妤 1,336、子涵 1,271、怡萱 1,258 | 承恩 2,997、承翰 2,636、冠廷 2,452、冠宇 2,206、宇翔 1,938、柏翰 1,885、彥廷 1,610、冠霖 1,509、柏宇 1,471、柏諺 1,409 |
| 2011–2020 | 品妍 2,421、子晴 2,087、詠晴 2,001、品妤 1,697、禹彤 1,578、羽彤 1,434、芯語 1,342、宥蓁 1,226、語彤 1,221、苡晴 1,164 | 承恩 2,215、宥廷 2,036、品睿 2,021、宸睿 1,904、宇恩 1,860、宇翔 1,713、承翰 1,556、宥辰 1,532、柏睿 1,511、睿恩 1,503 |
| 2021–2023.6 | 品妍 355、苡菲 306、雨霏 301、芸菲 294、芯語 285、苡安 283、玥彤 280、羽彤 276、子晴 260、禹彤 258 | 恩碩 469、宥廷 366、子睿 327、承恩 322、品睿 316、宇恩 315、宸睿 309、睿恩 286、子宸 267、子恩 262 |
Of the 31,879 women named Shu-fen, 25,136 were born between 1961 and 1980: 78.8%.[1] Ya-ting took over for the next twenty years, then Yi-chen and Pin-yen. For men the line runs from Cheng-hsiung and Wu-hsiung to Chih-ming and Chih-wei, then Chia-hao and Cheng-en.
Counts in the top rows are small because most of those generations are no longer on the register. Counts in the bottom rows are small for a different reason: fewer babies, spread over more names. The report does not separate the two effects.
Doubled-character names are another strongly gendered pattern: 67,571 people have one, and 66,351 of them are women. The most common is 婷婷 Ting-ting.[1]
What this table is not It holds only the top ten names per cohort. Names outside the top ten, and combinations of surname and given name, are not on this page and we do not provide them.
That line of Latin letters in the passport? The holder picked it.
One surname, up to four official spellings
A passport name is the Chinese name “transliterated character by character into Latin letters”.[6] For how, the Bureau of Consular Affairs publishes a table: 409 syllables, each spelled in four systems.[3] All four are acceptable, and the Bureau says it does not require any one of them.[5] This is why two Taiwanese colleagues with the same surname may spell it differently.
張 can be CHANG, ZHANG, JHANG or JANG
The fifteen most common surnames in all four systems. Orange cells differ from the Wade–Giles spelling
| Surname | Zhuyin | Wade–Giles | Hanyu Pinyin | Tongyong Pinyin | MPS II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 陳 | ㄔㄣˊ | CHEN | CHEN | CHEN | CHEN |
| 林 | ㄌㄧㄣˊ | LIN | LIN | LIN | LIN |
| 黃 | ㄏㄨㄤˊ | HUANG | HUANG | HUANG | HUANG |
| 張 | ㄓㄤ | CHANG | ZHANG | JHANG | JANG |
| 李 | ㄌㄧˇ | LI | LI | LI | LI |
| 王 | ㄨㄤˊ | WANG | WANG | WANG | WANG |
| 吳 | ㄨˊ | WU | WU | WU | WU |
| 劉 | ㄌㄧㄡˊ | LIU | LIU | LIOU | LIOU |
| 蔡 | ㄘㄞˋ | TSAI | CAI | CAI | TSAI |
| 楊 | ㄧㄤˊ | YANG | YANG | YANG | YANG |
| 許 | ㄒㄩˇ | HSU | XU | SYU | SHIU |
| 鄭 | ㄓㄥˋ | CHENG | ZHENG | JHENG | JENG |
| 謝 | ㄒㄧㄝˋ | HSIEH | XIE | SIE | SHIE |
| 洪 | ㄏㄨㄥˊ | HUNG | HONG | HONG | HUNG |
| 郭 | ㄍㄨㄛ | KUO | GUO | GUO | GUO |
← swipe the table sideways →
Of the fifteen most common surnames, 7 are spelled the same in all four systems (Chen, Lin, Huang, Li and Wang among them); the rest have at least two spellings. Passport Wade–Giles drops the apostrophes that mark aspiration, so 張 and 常 are both CHANG. No system marks tones on a passport, so 許 and 徐 are spelled alike in each of them.
The passport rules themselves are short: surname first, a comma, then the given name, at most 39 letters including spaces; a renewed passport keeps the old spelling; and a surname spelled differently from that of a lineal relative or sibling may be changed to match.[6]
Which system is most common on real passports? We found no official or academic count, and this page does not repeat unsourced claims.
Try it: one name, four spellings
Type a name in Chinese characters to see all four spellings. Where a character has more than one reading, you choose. The full tool also works backwards, from a spelling to its pronunciation.
Chinese Name Romanization Converter 2026
Type a Chinese name to see its passport spelling in four official systems, or type a romanized Taiwanese name to see how it is pronounced.
| Wade–Giles 威妥瑪 | WANG, HSIAO-MING | |
|---|---|---|
| Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音 | WANG, XIAO-MING | |
| Tongyong Pinyin 通用拼音 | WANG, SIAO-MING | |
| MPS II 國音第二式 | WANG, SHIAU-MING |
What you type stays on this page: it is not sent to a server, not stored, and not put in the URL unless you ask for a link.
This tool is another way of reading the official table, not an application form. The name on a passport is decided by the Bureau of Consular Affairs under its own rules.
Spellings: Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport Name Romanization Table, 29 May 2026
The policy, by date
- 1986-01The Ministry of Education announces MPS II, a revision of the earlier official “transliteration symbols”.[4]
- 1998-01Taipei City Government adopts Tongyong Pinyin.[4]
- 2002-08-22The Executive Yuan files the Guidelines on Chinese Romanization: place names and passport names are to use Tongyong Pinyin, while existing passport spellings may be kept.[7]
- 2003-08-20The guidelines are widened: Tongyong Pinyin becomes the default for Chinese romanization in general.[7]
- 2008-12-18The default is switched to Hanyu Pinyin. For personal names, the guidelines say the person’s own wishes are to be respected.[7]
- 2019-08-09Passport rules replace “Mandarin reading” with “reading in a national language”: a passport name may now follow Taiwanese, Hakka or an Indigenous language.[6]
- 2026-05-29The current Bureau of Consular Affairs table: 409 syllables in four systems, marked “for reference only”.[3]
Which system should be used? The positions
For Hanyu Pinyin
- Chen Hsueh-yu, Ministry of Education (2008): foreigners reported inconsistent spellings between cities; the switch was made on practical grounds.[17]
- Ministry of Education notes, republished by the Bureau of Consular Affairs: Hanyu Pinyin is the ISO-recognised standard, widely used in academic publishing and library systems.[4]
For Tongyong or locally designed systems
- Yu Bor-chuan, designer of Tongyong Pinyin (2000): the system seeks a balance between internationalisation and autonomy; he also said the two could coexist.[18]
- Chang Shu-fen, Taiwan Pinyin Alliance (2008): opposed the wholesale switch, argued that proper names should follow the owner’s choice, and questioned the cost.[19]
A note on balance Most of these statements come from press coverage of the two policy changes, in 2000 and 2008. We found few first-hand statements from either side.
陳 is Chén in Mandarin, Tân in Taiwanese, Ciin in Hakka.
Since 2019 a passport may follow the Taiwanese or Hakka pronunciation
The character is the same; the sound is not. From 9 August 2019 passport names are transliterated from the reading “in a national language”, no longer only Mandarin.[6] The Bureau of Consular Affairs points applicants to the Ministry of Education’s Taiwanese and Hakka dictionaries.[3]
One surname, three languages, three sounds
The twelve most common surnames in Mandarin, Taiwanese (Taigi) and Hakka. Taiwanese and Hakka readings are the surname readings in the Ministry of Education dictionaries; each links to its entry
| Surname | Mandarin (Hanyu Pinyin) | Taiwanese (Tâi-lô) | Hakka, Sixian | Hakka, Hailu |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 陳 | chén | Tân | ciin11 | chin55 |
| 林 | lín | Lîm | lim11 | lim55 |
| 黃 | huáng | N̂g | vong11 | vong55 |
| 張 | zhāng | Tiunn | zong24 | zhong53 |
| 李 | lǐ | Lí | li31 | li24 |
| 王 | wáng | Ông | vong11 | vong55 |
| 吳 | wú | Ngôo | ng11 | ng55 |
| 劉 | liú | Lâu | liu11 | liu55 |
| 蔡 | cài | Tshuà | cai55 | cai11 |
| 楊 | yáng | Iûnn | iong11 | rhong55 |
| 許 | xǔ | Khóo | hi31 | hi24 |
| 鄭 | zhèng | Tēnn/Tīnn | cang55 | chang33 |
← swipe the table sideways →
黃 is N̂g in Taiwanese, 吳 is Ngôo and 許 is Khóo, none of which resembles the Mandarin spelling. Hakka has six varieties in Taiwan, and the same surname takes different tones in Sixian and Hailu.
This page lists surname readings for the thirty most common surnames only. For given names, use the name look-up in the Ministry of Education’s Taiwanese and Hakka dictionaries.[15][16] The surname in a passport alias could already follow a mother-tongue reading from 2016. Someone who already holds a passport may change the spelling on the ground that it does not match the pronunciation, once.[6]
First changed by others, then restorable, now registrable in its own script.
Since 2024 an Indigenous name can be registered in its own script alone
Each of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples has its own way of naming, built differently from the Han “surname plus given name”. From 1940 the colonial government opened Japanese-style names to Taiwanese; after the war the new government had Indigenous people without a Chinese-style name adopt one. In 1995 the law began to allow traditional names back; in 2024 it allowed them to stand without Chinese characters.[8][12]
From renamed to written in their own language
- 1940-02-11The Government-General opens Japanese-style name changes to Taiwanese, by permit. A 1944 newspaper count put the 1940–43 total at about 126,000; no island-wide figure survives for the years after.[12]
- 1945-12 / 1946-05The postwar provincial administration issues rules for restoring original names: Indigenous people with no earlier name to restore may choose a name on the Chinese model. A May 1946 revision adds a three-month deadline.[12]
- 1995-01-20Name Act art. 1 amended: Indigenous names are registered according to custom, and those registered under Han surnames may apply to restore traditional names.[8]
- 2001-06-20Traditional names may be registered with a romanized form alongside. From 25 June 2003 a Han name may also carry the romanized traditional name beside it.[8]
- 2023-11-02The Taipei High Administrative Court orders a household registration office to register the plaintiff’s name as “Bawtu Payen”, in his own language only.[10]
- 2024-05-29The amended Name Act is promulgated (passed 14 May). New art. 2: a traditional name registered according to custom may be written in an Indigenous script.[8]
- 2025-05-09Passport rules follow: for someone whose name is registered in an Indigenous script only, that spelling is the passport name.[6]
Five ways to build a name
The Council of Indigenous Peoples groups the naming customs of the sixteen recognised peoples into five types.[11] It is a reference compiled by the Council; what an individual actually does may differ from the classification.
Patronymic / matronymic
own name + a parent’s name
Atayal, Seediq, Truku, Kavalan, Sakizaya and some Amis
The second element changes every generation, so a family does not share one “surname”.
Parent’s name plus clan name
own name + parent’s name + clan name
Saisiyat, and Amis groups that have clans
The clan name comes last, the opposite of where a Han surname sits.
House name
own name + house name
Paiwan, Rukai, Pinuyumayan
The house name marks the house a person was born into; founding a new house means a new house name.
Clan name
own name + clan name
Bunun, Tsou, Thao, Kanakanavu, Hla’alua
The personal name comes first, the clan name after it.
Teknonymy
kin term + first child’s name
Yami (Tao)
When a first child is born, parents and grandparents all take new names.
How many people use a traditional name
On 30 June 2023 there were 586,538 Indigenous people on the register; 22,614 of them, 3.86%, had a romanized name registered beside their name. Over the fifteen years from 2008 to 2022, 2,670 people applied to restore a traditional name, 1,078 were registered with one at birth, and 500 applied to go back to a Han name.[1]
We found no published total for how many people have switched to an Indigenous-script-only name since 2024. A 2024 Council planning document says fewer than 40,000 people, about 6%, have registered a traditional name, without giving a date or method.[32]
The ten most common surnames among Indigenous people are Lin, Chen, Huang, Chang, Li, Wang, Kao, Pan, Wu and Yang, together 48.4%.[1] The timeline above explains where those Han surnames came from.
Names in Indigenous script only: the positions
Those who pushed for it
Concerns raised by agencies
- MOI household registration: Chinese names and romanized names sit in separate fields; agencies that read only the Chinese field may fail on single-listed names, so systems need adjusting together.[20]
- Yun Tien-pao, head of Hsinchu County’s Indigenous affairs department (April 2024, before the amendment, on why few people restore traditional names): most paperwork runs in Chinese, restoring a name means replacing every document, and adding a romanized form offers little incentive.[22]
After adding an Indigenous name
- PTS News (2026): people who added an Indigenous name under the Indigenous Status Act say they need new horizontal seals, and that banks ask for different things.[23]
A name can be changed. The law asks for a reason.
Fewer people change their names each year, and 6.0% of newborns now take the mother’s surname
Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 399 (1996) treats the right to one’s name as a personality right.[31] The Name Act lists seven grounds for changing a given name. One of them, that the name is “vulgar, too long when transliterated, or for other special reasons”, carries a limit: three times.[8]
Name changes fell 39.6% in nine years
People who changed their given name, by year
Data table
| Year | Name changes |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 111,109 |
| 2014 | 99,613 |
| 2015 | 97,475 |
| 2016 | 91,716 |
| 2017 | 86,972 |
| 2018 | 81,484 |
| 2019 | 79,356 |
| 2020 | 77,132 |
| 2021 | 69,848 |
| 2022 | 67,105 |
111,109 people changed their given name in 2013 and 67,105 in 2022.[1] The limit of three applies only to the “special reasons” ground. Sharing a full name with a colleague, adoption, and changes made under Indigenous custom do not count toward it.
How many people became “Salmon”?
In March 2021 a sushi chain offered free meals to anyone with the characters for “salmon” (鮭魚) in their name, and over two days people went to household registration offices to change theirs. There is no single official total. One newspaper, citing the household registration department, reported 298 applicants of whom 159 had already changed back;[24] a legislator cited 332.[25] “About three hundred” is as precise as the record allows. The limit of three in article 9 of the Name Act has not changed since.
Newborns given the mother’s surname: 4.73% in 2008, 6.0% in the first nine months of 2025
Share of birth registrations taking the mother’s surname (%). 2025 covers January to September
Data table
| Year | Mother’s surname |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 4.73% |
| 2009 | 4.44% |
| 2010 | 4.68% |
| 2011 | 4.03% |
| 2012 | 3.83% |
| 2013 | 4.2% |
| 2014 | 4.32% |
| 2015 | 4.43% |
| 2016 | 4.65% |
| 2017 | 4.78% |
| 2018 | 4.95% |
| 2019 | 4.98% |
| 2020 | 5.21% |
| 2021 | 5.14% |
| 2022 | 5.44% |
| 2023 | 5.7% |
| 2024 | 5.6% |
| 2025 * | 6.0% |
Article 1059 of the Civil Code was amended in 2007 so that parents agree in writing, before registration, whether a child takes the father’s or the mother’s surname; under the current text, if they cannot agree, lots are drawn at the registration office.[13] Of 81,381 babies registered in the first nine months of 2025, 4,884 took the mother’s surname. Where both parents agreed, which is nearly all cases, 3.4% chose the mother’s; of the 2,037 decided by one parent, 99.0% did; 168 were settled by lot.[2]
The rate varies widely: Taitung County 16.8% and Hualien County 16.5% are highest.[2] Adding a spouse’s surname is moving the other way: from 2018 to 2022, 1,147 people added one and 5,838 removed one.[1]
Three Kevins in one classroom. Not one of them on the household register.
An English name has no legal standing; a new citizen must take a Chinese name
Two rules that point in opposite directions. Taiwanese people often give themselves an English name, and the law does not care. A foreigner who naturalises is required to take a Chinese one.
Where an English name can go
The household register holds no English name. A passport can carry one “alias”, which must include a surname: the same one as in the passport name, or a transliteration of the Chinese surname in a national language.[6] Adding an alias for the first time during a passport’s validity means getting a new passport.[26]
How many people have one?
Nobody has counted nationally. The academic studies are small: a 2015 paper, for example, analysed the English names of 248 students at one university.[29]
The Chinese name of a naturalised citizen
The Name Act requires a Chinese name for household registration, naturalisation or a passport, written in characters found in standard dictionaries.[8] It may be a transliteration of the original name and need not use a Han surname. The original name may be registered beside it in Latin letters, and the Chinese name may be changed once.[27][14]
“In keeping with naming custom”
The Act says the Chinese name of a foreign spouse or naturalised citizen must fit “the naming customs of nationals”. In 2012 the Ministry of the Interior read this to mean only surname-first order; a person with no surname may register a given name alone.[14]
Chinese names for new citizens: what we could find
For loosening the rule
- Peng Kun-yeh, Ministry of Justice (2011): naming customs differ, and the law should not force a particular set of Chinese characters on people.[28]
What the administration did
- A 2012 MOI decision: out of respect for cultural diversity, “custom” means only surname-first order, and transliterations are fine; a Chinese name is still required and must use dictionary characters.[14]
A gap in the record The only attributable, dated statements we found on this question are from 2011–2012. We have not found reliable sources for the debate since the 2015 amendment.
A name is how other people call you, and how you ask to be called.
How to use this page
Addressing someone
The first character (the first two, for a compound surname) is the family name. Use it with a title: Ms. Chen, Professor Lin. Do not shorten a hyphenated given name: Yi-chun is one name, not “Yi”. An Indigenous name may have no surname at all; follow the order and spelling the person uses.
Naming a fictional character
Decide the birth year first and take characters that were common for that cohort; a teenager called Shu-fen would be as odd as a teenage Mildred. Decide what language the family speaks at home, which shapes what the grandparents call the character. Then pick one romanization system and keep the family surname consistent.
Spelling a name for a passport
The tool here is another way to read the official table. What applies in practice is the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ rules, the applicant’s previous passport and the family’s existing spelling.
Family history: when the spelling does not match
An older relative’s surname may have been spelled from the Taiwanese or Hakka pronunciation, or in a system that is rare today. The reverse look-up in the tool shows which system a spelling belongs to.
How current the numbers are
Surname and given-name statistics are from the household register on 30 June 2023; the ministry has not published a newer edition. Mother’s-surname figures run to September 2025. Laws are as in force in November 2026.
What is not here
Surname origins and clan halls, the meaning or luck of characters, look-ups for arbitrary names, and a name generator. For the first two we found no verifiable data; for the last two there is no public data and we do not intend to build them.
People whose names have a story
Sources
The numbers beside each figure match the list below. Laws and government statistics link to the original documents, almost all in Chinese; statements by named people link to the reporting at the time.
- Ministry of the Interior, National Name Statistics, 2023 edition (in Chinese) · 2023-10 (data as of 2023-06-30)
- MOI Department of Statistics, Weekly Bulletin 2025 no. 46: surnames given to newborns (in Chinese) · 2025-11-15
- Bureau of Consular Affairs, Passport Name Romanization Table (in Chinese) · 2026-05-29
- Bureau of Consular Affairs, notes on the four romanization systems (in Chinese) · 2026-05-28
- Bureau of Consular Affairs FAQ: which romanization may be used on a passport (in Chinese) · 2026-05-28
- Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act, arts. 13, 14 and 14-1 (in Chinese) · 2025-05-09 amended
- Ministry of Education, Guidelines on the Use of Chinese Romanization (in Chinese) · 2002-08-22, 2003-08-20, 2008-12-18 filed with the Executive Yuan
- Name Act, current text and amendment history (in Chinese) · 2024-05-29 amended
- MOI press release on the 2024 Name Act amendment (in Chinese) · 2024-05-14
- Taipei High Administrative Court, judgment 110-Su-1084 (in Chinese) · 2023-11-02
- Council of Indigenous Peoples, overview of traditional naming customs (in Chinese) · 2025-06-08
- Taiwan Historica newsletter no. 113, Hsiao Pi-chen on postwar name restoration (in Chinese, archived copy) · 2013-08-29
- Civil Code, arts. 1000 and 1059, with amendment history (in Chinese) · 1998-06-17, 2007-05-23, 2010-05-19 amended
- MOI Department of Household Registration, principles for Chinese names of foreign nationals (in Chinese) · 2012-01-30 meeting decision
- Ministry of Education, Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi, surname appendix · retrieved 2026-11-10
- Ministry of Education, Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka, surname appendix · retrieved 2026-11-10
- VOA Chinese, report on the 2008 switch to Hanyu Pinyin (in Chinese) · 2008-09-18
- Taipei Times, “The case for Tongyong Pinyin” · 2000-10-12
- Epoch Times, interview with the head of the Taiwan Pinyin Alliance (in Chinese) · 2008-10-20
- Right Plus, reporting on single-listed Indigenous names (in Chinese) · 2024-05-14
- Joint statement by the Judicial Reform Foundation and seven other groups (in Chinese) · 2024-05-15
- China Times, on name restoration in Jianshi Township (in Chinese) · 2024-04-23
- PTS News, on practical problems after adding Indigenous names (in Chinese) · 2026-01-29
- Taipei Times, “Majority who changed name revert” · 2021-03-21
- Liberty Times, legislator cites the number of “salmon” name changes (in Chinese) · 2021-03-19
- Bureau of Consular Affairs, passport endorsements and aliases (in Chinese) · 2024-08-16 (2026-01-28 updated)
- Enforcement Rules of the Name Act (in Chinese) · 2024-11-28 amended
- Liberty Times, 2011 debate over Chinese names for naturalized citizens (in Chinese) · 2011-11-17
- Chen, L. N. H. (2015). Choices and Patterns of English Names among Taiwanese Students. Names, 63(4) · 2015
- McBopomofo reading data (MIT) and Unicode Unihan 16.0.0 (kMandarin) · pinned at 1f98c58
- Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 399 (in Chinese) · 1996-03-22
- Council of Indigenous Peoples, three-year plan to ease registration of traditional names (in Chinese) · 2024-05-19
Data compiled: 2026-11-10
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