What i mean is, If my last name is Wan, and someone random on the street just happens to have the same last name as me, does it mean that we are somehow related through our ancestor's roots. I just wonder how did my last name originate?
2007-02-01 19:24:10 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
there's a saying in chinese that goes something like that:
五百年前本是一家... literally means we belong to the same family 500 years ago.... hence the same surname belongs to the same root.
2007-02-01 21:30:00 · answer #1 · answered by sista! 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Last Name Wan
2017-01-15 06:20:19 · answer #2 · answered by winkleman 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on what your name means in the language where it originated. Typically last names appeared as nicknames and were meant to help identify people with the same given names. So the person might be your relative or he/she might not. Though we're all relatives according to maths. If we search thoroughly even you and I could find some mutual ancestor about 600 years ago.
2007-02-01 19:30:47 · answer #3 · answered by olessa_lds 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not necessarily. I don't know what the name Wan means, but for example the English surname "Farmer" was given to people who were farmers. Two people who were not related could both be given the same nickname, "Farmer", which eventually became a surname. I'm sure the same applies to Wan.
But if you go back far enough, you are related to everybody.
2007-02-01 19:34:13 · answer #4 · answered by Gnomon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋