Cranky, on another thread, you posted a link to the 100 most popular surnames in Taiwan. Do you think this is accurate? I only ask, because I know my wifes name
I made the list myself by processing a massive list of Taiwanese names I found on the Net.
I did this several years ago. Perhaps I should try running through the data again. Thanks for the heads-up.
Hmm, the list by Tsai Chih-hao gives Xu2 in 11th place.
I trust his findings, so there must be something wrong with mine. 
Oh boy, more work for me this weekend.
I asked my girlfriend to look up the origin of the (real) Chinese surname that I adopted to translate my own surname. She had to look it up in some kind of encyclopedia at the National Library.
One of the things I wondered was whether surnames traditionally have any political significance. Would I be taking sides in some clan-feud by virtue of my Chinese name? If so, I’ve never discovered any such significance. Maybe they don’t consider me a genuine adoptive member of the clan!
Apparently there is a LOT of geographic variation (including between Taiwan and everywhere else) in what names are common. I’d love to know the details, too.
That’s a good list. With one exception the top ten names are the same (but different order) as the ones on zhongwen.com I am a little curious as to whether there are major difference between Taiwan and the Mainland, given that you would expect many if not most surnames to have regional concentrations and Taiwan was settled mostly from a couple of specific regions. Maybe the differences are mor noticeable below the top ten.
Brian