Taipei, Oct. 30 (CNA) The number of people who have one of the most common last names in Taiwan now make up 52.79 percent, or 12.33 million, of the total population, with Chen (陳) being the largest surname group, according to statistics released Monday by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).
The 10 most populous surnames in Taiwan, compiled as of June 30, were Chen, Lin (林), Huang (黃), Chang (張), Lee (李), Wang (王), Wu (吳), Liu (劉), Tsai (蔡) and Yang (楊), the MOI said.
Based on statistics, the number of people surnamed Chen stood at 2.61 million people, or 11.21 percent of the population, while Lin follows with 1.94 million people, and Huang at 1.40 million.
Taiwan has a total of 1,785 surnames among its 23.37 million people, with 1,667 of them being single-character names, and 118 being two-character names, the MOI said. There were also 8,089 people with names transliterated into Chinese characters, including foreign residents and Indigenous Taiwanese tribe members.
Meanwhile, the number of newborns who take their mother's surname has been increasing, the MOI said. Amendments to the Civil Code in 2007 began allowing children to be given their mother's surnames at birth.
Between 2012 and 2022, the percentage of children with their mother's surnames has increased from 3.83 percent to 5.44 percent, it indicated.
The ministry said Taiwan's most popular names remain unchanged this year, with Chia-hao (家豪) and Shu-fen (淑芬) being the most common names for men and women.
The MOI data showed that in Taiwan, there were 14,038 men named Chia-hao, while 31,879 women were named Shu-fen. Both have remained in the top spots since 2012 and 2010, respectively.
After Chia-hao, the two other most common male names were Chih-ming (志明) and Chien-hung (建宏), which numbered 12,719 and 12,196, respectively. For women, they were Shu-hui (淑惠), with 30,420 people having that name, and Mei-ling (美玲) with 27,487.
