Ma (surname)

Ma
Ma surname in regular script
RomanizationMa, Mah, Mar, Mo (Mandarin, Cantonese)
PronunciationMǎ (Pinyin)
Má, Bé (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Language(s)Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
DerivationName of a district
Meaning"Horse"

Ma (simplified Chinese: 马; traditional Chinese: 馬; pinyin: Mǎ) is a Chinese family name. The surname literally means "horse".[1] As of 2006, it ranks as the 14th most common Chinese surname in mainland China. In 2019 it was the 13th most common surname in mainland China.[2] A 2013 study found it to be the 13th most common, shared by 17,200,000 people or 1.290% of the population, with the province with the most being Henan. It is the 52nd name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.[3]

From He (surname) adopted name "Ma" (馬), the first word of the district Ma Fu, as their surname. Other romanizations include Mah, Beh, and Mar.

Hui Muslims, Salars, Bonan and Dongxiang people commonly adopted Ma as the translation for their surname Mahmud / Muhammad.[4][5][6][7]

During the Ming dynasty, the Zhengde Emperor had a Uyghur concubine with the surname Ma.[8][9]

It is not to be confused with the less common surname Má (麻), which means "hemp."[10]

  1. ^ Ian Jeffries. Political Developments in Contemporary China: A Guide. Routledge, 23 Jul 2010. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  2. ^ "新京报 - 好新闻，无止境".
  3. ^ K. S. Tom. [1989] (1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1285-9.
  4. ^ Dru C. Gladney (1996). Muslim Chinese: ethnic nationalism in the People's Republic. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard Univ Asia Center. p. 375. ISBN 0-674-59497-5. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  5. ^ BARRY RUBIN (2000). Guide to Islamist Movements. M.E. Sharpe. p. 79. ISBN 0-7656-1747-1. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  6. ^ Leif O. Manger (1999). Muslim diversity: local Islam in global contexts. Routledge. p. 132. ISBN 0-7007-1104-X. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  7. ^ Susan Debra Blum; Lionel M. Jensen (2002). China off center: mapping the margins of the middle kingdom. University of Hawaii Press. p. 121. ISBN 0-8248-2577-2. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  8. ^ Luther Carrington Goodrich; Zhaoying Fang; Association for Asian Studies. Ming Biographical History Project Committee. (1976). Dictionary of Ming biography, 1368-1644, Volume 2. Columbia University Press. p. 314. ISBN 0-231-03801-1. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
  9. ^ Peter C. Perdue (2005). China marches west: the Qing conquest of Central Eurasia. Harvard University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-674-01684-X. Retrieved 2011-04-17.
  10. ^ "Ma Surname Meaning & Ma Family History at Ancestry.com®". www.ancestry.com.