Eight Great Surnames of Chinese Antiquity

The eight great surnames of Chinese antiquity were among the most important Chinese surnames in Chinese antiquity.[1][2] They are all Chinese ancestral surnames, and as such, have Chinese clan surnames branching off from them.[3] During the earliest Chinese antiquity, Chinese society focused on women. Family names often passed from women to their children. Because of this phenomenon, these eight surnames have a component of their hanzi representing the character woman (女).[1][4]

As of 2019, very few people had one of these surnames as a family name.[2] An exception is the surnames Yao[5][2] and Jiang.[6][2] Of these, there are some well-known Chinese of modern times with these names today. One example is Yao Ming (姚明).[7]