Keeping up with the Lis, Wangs and Zhangs

A recent survey found that more than 21 percent of Chinese people -- some 273 million people -- have one of three surnames. Li is the most popular name and is shared by 7.4 percent of Chinese. Wang comes next at 7.2 percent, and Zhang is third at 6.8 percent. The survey covered nearly 296,000 people in 1,110 counties and cities. Included in that sample were 4,100 different family names. The story claims that China was the first country to use family names, starting the practice nearly 5,000 years ago.

Not really pertinent: Here's an online Chinese name generator that will shit you out a name guaranteed to raise eyebrows the country over.

And in other name news, Tuantuan and Yuanyuan are the people's choices for the names of the two pandas the Mainland may offer Taiwan.

Image of Chinese poet Li Bai from chinabroadcast.cn.