Eli5 Why are there less surnames in East Asia?

Question

Eli5 Why are there less surnames in East Asia?

In: 0

Answer 1

Do you mean mostly China, Korea and Japan?

Here is a non-brief explanation for Chinese.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_name#:~:text=Family%20names,-Main%20article%3A%20Chinese&text=Although%20there%20are%20currently%20over,of%20China’s%201.3%20billion%20citizens)

There are actually a lot in use (thousands) but there is a dominant concentration in a few hundred.

This number is made even “smaller” when China standardized writing and then later on Mandarin language for official use. There are a lot more pronunciations when considering dialects but might use the same Chinese ideogram. For example: Wong, Huang, Ong, Ng.

Answer 2

Do you mean mostly China, Korea and Japan?

Here is a non-brief explanation for Chinese.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_name#:~:text=Family%20names,-Main%20article%3A%20Chinese&text=Although%20there%20are%20currently%20over,of%20China’s%201.3%20billion%20citizens)

There are actually a lot in use (thousands) but there is a dominant concentration in a few hundred.

This number is made even “smaller” when China standardized writing and then later on Mandarin language for official use. There are a lot more pronunciations when considering dialects but might use the same Chinese ideogram. For example: Wong, Huang, Ong, Ng.