Do not be surprised if you find yourself surrounded by men named Chia-hao (家豪) or women named Shu-fen (淑芬), because according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior, those two names are the most popular given names for boys and girls respectively in the country.
“Chia-hao” tops the “market name” — a term commonly used in Taiwan to describe names heard repeatedly when shopping in markets — list for men, with 14,229 people having the name across the country. Chih-ming (志明) follows with 14,022, Chun-chieh (俊傑) with 12,695, Chien-hung (建宏) with 12,695 and Chun-hung (俊宏) with 11,812, the data showed.
Chih-ming was the most popular name for men in the last census statistics, released in 2010.
The women’s name Shu-fen remains the top “market name” this year, with 33,063 women in the country sharing the name, the statistics showed. Shu-hui (淑惠) follows with 30,935, Mei-ling (美玲) with 27,914, Ya-ting (雅婷) with 25,103 and Mei-hui (美惠), with 24,312 people.
While there is no clear theme discernible yet among today’s popular names, previous popular names have tended to reflect their times.
“When we break the data into decades, we can see there are different popular names for different generations and there are always social phenomena behind the popular names of each generation,” Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said.
“For instance, the top three most popular boys’ names in the 1930s and 1940s were Cheng-hsiung (正雄), Wu-hsiung (武雄) and Wen-hsiung (文雄), which are all names with Japanese influence, because Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule at the time,” he said.
He said that in the 1950s, popular names were Chin-tsai (進財, “making a fortune”), Jung-hua (榮華, “prosperity”) or “Tian-tsai” (添財, “adding more money”),“because it was a time of poverty and most parents hoped that their child could lead a wealthy and prosperous life.”
In the 1960s and the 1970s, popular names for boys were Chih-ming, (志明, “having a clear goal in life”), “Chih-hao” (志豪, “having a great objective in life”) and Chih-cheng (志成, “accomplishing one’s goals in life”) because with more financial stability, parents started wanting their children to achieve more, he said.
“As a middle class has been created nowadays, the most popular names for newborn boys and girls often include the word “pin” (品), which could be interpreted as ‘quality’ or ‘appreciation,’” Chien said. “This is probably because parents want their children to lead a quality life or to show appreciation to the surrounding world.”
Meanwhile, statistics for surnames released by the ministry yesterday showed Chen (陳) is the most populous surname in the country, accounting for nearly 2.6 million people, or 11.13 percent of the population. Lin (林) follows with 1.9 million people, accounting for 8.3 percent of the population, while Huang (黃) is the third most populous family name, with 1.4 million people having the family name, accounting for 6.03 percent of the population, the ministry said.
“Some parents want to avoid giving ‘market names’ to their children, but in my opinion, market names are not bad names. Rather, those are names that are popular and liked by most parents,” Chien said.
Department of Household Registration Deputy Director Su Ching-chao (蘇清朝) said that while the majority of traditional family names are composed of one or two characters, there are family names with as many as three or four characters.
“Beginning earlier this year, we’ve allowed naturalized citizens to phonetically translate their names, instead of having to have a two-to-four character name in the traditional form,” Su said. “So we’re having more diverse family names with multiple characters.”
There is one rule to follow if a naturalized citizen of Taiwan wishes to phonetically translate his or her name into characters.
“The only requirement we have is that in official documents, the family name must precede the given name to avoid confusions as different countries may have different cultures when it comes to where the surname is placed,” Su said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS