Among people with the nation’s 20 most common surnames, people surnamed Liu (劉) had the highest aging index, followed by people surnamed Kuo (郭) and people surnamed Cheng (鄭), a report released by the Ministry of the Interior yesterday said.
The national aging index was 108.78, while the aging indices for people surnamed Liu and Kuo were 113.4 and 112.54 respectively, the ministry said.
The statistics are from a nationwide survey conducted by the ministry at the end of June.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
It recorded 1,832 surnames nationwide, 329 more than in 2016, with the 10 most common being Chen (陳), Lin (林), Huang (黃), Chang (張), Lee (李), Wang (王), Wu (吳), Liu, Tsai (蔡) and Yang (楊).
People with the 10 most common surnames accounted for 52.78 percent of the total population, while people with the 100 most common surnames made up 96.57 percent.
About 170,000 married couples shared the same surname, despite a superstition that people with the same surname should not marry, the agency said.
There were 5,353,385 married couples, with marriages between people surnamed Chen and Lin being the most common, it said.
Hsu (徐) was the most common surname for people aged 90 or over and Wang was the mos common for people aged 100 or over, it said.
From 2010 to last year, 820,634 people changed their names, the ministry said.
People aged 27 to 34 were most likely to change their names, and 29-year-olds changed their names the most.
The names of people who were born from 2011 to last year were most likely to be changed if they were originally named Chen-en (承恩), Yu-hsiang (宇翔), Chen-han (承翰), Yu-ting (宥廷), Ping-jui (品睿), Chia-hao (家豪), Tzu-hsiang (子翔), Yu-en (宇恩), Chen-yu (承佑) or Kuan-yu (冠宇), it said.
However, within the younger population, Chen-en, Chen-han and Ping-jui were also the most common names people changed to, it said.
In terms of sharing a name with politicians, the ministry said 466 people — including President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — have Ying-wen (英文) as their given name, 1,125 share Vice President Chen Chien-jen’s (陳建仁) given name, 1,040 people are named Ching-te (清德), Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) Chinese given name, and 502 people share Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung’s (徐國勇) first name.
People also like to name their children after athletes, philanthropists or celebrities, the ministry said.
More than 2,000 people share Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) Chinese given name, Shu-hao (書豪), while 696 are named Ya-ni (雅妮), 722 are named Pao-chun (寶春), 40 are named Shu-chu (樹菊), 128 are named Yung-jan (詠然), 476 are named Shu-wei (淑薇) and 210 are named Tzu-ying (資穎), it said.
As of June, the national population was 23,574,274, it said.
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