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sand are frequently seen in daily life”.[8] P6 “It is thought that Chinese family names came about in matriarchal clan society. At that time, every clan got the distinctive clan name based on their totem or dwelling places. The clan names are the earliest family names which in Chinese are called 姓(xing)”.[9] P9 After population of a clan multiplied, the clan divided into several branches and moved to different places to live. Then each branch would get their own branch name to distinguish this branch from the others. The name of each branch is called氏(shi). The difference between them is that, the former one is used to tell apart different families in ranks of family in the society. So “xing” is not changeable, but “shi” can be changed. In ancient China, there would be thousand of people shared the same family names, they came from the same clans and lived in the same villages, some of them may move to other places, but they couldn’t change their family names. According to historical records, in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, “xing” and “shi” began to have class color besides their original function. “Shi”, especially, was best owned by their ruler. As a result, “shi” became the mark of the aristocracy. Only the aristocrats had “shi”, and the ordinary people had no “shi”. All the aristocrats were men at that time. Therefore, only men had “shi”. “The distinction between “xing” and “shi” disappeared in Qin and Han Dynasty. They became one that is called “xingshi” in Chinese and refers to family names”.[10] P10 This phenomenon indicates that the original function and distinction of “xing” and “shi” were of no significance after the centralized feudal social system was established. (ii) Origin of English family names “The history of English family names is much shorter than the Chinese ones. It came about in the Middle Ages”.[11] P34 They are in large number. Social cultural factors play an important role in the development of English family names. They reflect a complete picture of English feudal society. So they are the living fossils for studying English history and culture. English family names are the historical product of English society. They experienced nearly three centuries from nonexistence to full development. There was a time when no one had a hereditary family name. “When the ancestors of English people invaded Britain in the 5th century, they formed a tribal society. English people didn’t get family names until 1066 when Normans conquered Britain. The Normans certainly didn’t have a fully developed family names system”.[12] P80 It was not yet their conscious policy to identify a family by one name. But there were not enough names for distinction. In a certain period more and more names were duplicated. This phenomenon brought great trouble to people in communication. So when people were talking about a person who was absent, they often employed additional phrases for further identification. For example, when they referred to John who lived under the hill, they would add descriptive phrase as “from the hill”. Then John became “John from the hill” to indicate which John they were talking about. Although the additional phrases can play the role for further identification, they are too complicated. Therefore, some unimportant words are often omitted. Then “John from the hill” is changed into “John Hill”. With the development of feudal society, there was an urgent need for people to solve the problem of personal identification