北宋初年有一本影响深广的蒙学读物《百家姓》,收录了四百三十八个姓,后来的增补本增加到五百零六个。但这并非汉姓的全部。在这之前,唐林宝的《元和姓纂》收录的姓就有一千四百多个；在这之后,南宋郑樵《通志·氏族略》里所收的姓更增至二千六百多个；而现在一般认为的汉姓有三千多个,也有认为五千多个,甚至有认为汉姓已达一万多的。然而实际上真正的汉姓是很少的,不过几十个,大部分姓原先都是氏。姓和氏现在已连用为双音节词,氏的意义已经虚化,姓氏就是姓。但若从姓氏发展的历史看,现在所说的“姓氏”,大部分应该是氏而不是姓。在上古。姓和氏是两个单音节词,姓是姓,氏是氏,不能含混。中国社会在秦汉以前是一个既有姓又有氏的社会,两者的区分相当严格。 In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a profound impact of the encyclopedia “Baijia Surname,” which enrolled a total of 438 surnames and later increased the supplement to 506. But this is not all of the surnames. Prior to this, there were over 1,400 surnames collected by Tang and Lin’s “Yuan and Zuxian”; after that, the surname received by Zheng Qiao in the Southern Song Dynasty was even increased to 2,600 And now it is generally believed that there are more than 3,000 Han surnames, some 5,000 or so, and even more than 10,000 Han names. However, in fact, the real Han name is very few, but dozens, most of the surnames were originally. Last name and now has been used as a double syllable word, the meaning of the word has been blurred, surname is surname. However, if we look at the history of surname development, what we now call “surnames” should mostly be not surnames. In ancient times. Surname and He are two monosyllable words, surname is surname, clairvoyance, can not be mixed. Before the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese society was a society with both surnames and clans. The distinction between the two was quite strict.