Is Lam a popular chinese last name ? Options

[Viety_Cent]

Yes my last names Lam
From my Dad side of the family (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_neutral.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile.gif)
and Im a sexy Viet (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/love2.gif)


Mainly because a lot of Chinese ( Cantonese ) have that same last name

but of different origins

and most of the time i get mistaken to be Chinese cuz of my last name

it pisses me off (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/madgo.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/madgo.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/madgo.gif)

and the way I look also justifies that I look different from my ethnicity (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bawling.gif)

Well I remeber my highschool teacher got a call from his doctor

Dr. Lam

and the teacher comes up to me is that ur Dad ?

arent u chinese ?


I was like WTF ? (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif)

No ! (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/sure.gif)


getting confused with my surname alot (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)

[hugo boss]

yes, LAM is a very common Cantonese last name, but some people spell it differetly like:

LAM

LIM

LUM

all the same name, just spelled different

[Viety_Cent]

yes, LAM is a very common Cantonese last name, but some people spell it differetly like:

LAM

LIM

LUM

all the same name, just spelled different

yea HOA ( ethnic chinse from vietnam) keep prouncing it LUM to me (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)

[Phi_Nguyen]

Hoa in Vietnamese refers to Chinese everywhere actually..as far as I know..and meaning flower of course.

And "Lum" is actually the Vietnamese way to pronounce "Lam" too...lol!

How do you pronounce your name then!? LOL cos as far as I know "Lam" is the same as "Lum" in pronunciation.

This post has been edited by Phi_Nguyen: Jan 4 2006, 08:56 PM

[Phi_Nguyen]

Oh I get it! I'm an idiot. There are two Vietnamese names that are spelt in English as Lam. They look the same cos they have no diacritics/tones.


The second one is the one that you would pronounce as "Lum".

This post has been edited by Phi_Nguyen: May 2 2009, 02:01 PM

[so?im_a_chink]

r u half viet or does ur father hav a chinese surname?

[Phi_Nguyen]

Well - regardless of whether he's half Viet or not, Lam is a very common Vietnamese surname too.

Vietnamese surnames (I feel like I'm repeating this from the other topic LMAO) like Korean and some Japanese and Thai are derived from Chinese. Because of this it's also common for some surnames to overlap in more than one language.

[white_lotus27]

Alot of Cantonese have last names that are similar to Vietnamese, like: Long, Tsang, Hoang, Lam, Phang, etc.
That's why some people get confused by the last name and thought that Cantonese ppl are Viet. Or Viet being as Cantonese.

Last year when two of the students in my class have the same last name, Lam. They thought that they were sisters, while one is Viet and the other was Cantonese. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)

This post has been edited by white_lotus27: Jan 4 2006, 10:19 PM

[kunomchu]

the cantonese spelling are in wade giles and not pinyin. For instance Chu would be zhu and chang would be zhang. What is the pinyin equivilant to lam?

[vtecKiller]

no

[luhai167]

Lam is same as Lin(林) in Mandrin Pingyin.
Here's list of common Chinese surnames. It ranked 9th on the list

This post has been edited by luhai167: Jan 4 2006, 11:31 PM

[MING-LOYALIST]

I think

Lam = LIN = 林.

[vtecKiller]

mine ranked at 21, woot

[Phi_Nguyen]

i doubt there are any chinese surnames that are used by 40 percent of the population, as is the case with nguyen in vietnamese LOL

[choco]

Alot of Cantonese have last names that are similar to Vietnamese, like: Long,  Hoang,  Phang, etc.
That's why some people get confused by the last name and thought that Cantonese ppl are Viet. Or Viet being as Cantonese.

Those names aren't Cantonese.

[hugo boss]

Alot of Cantonese have last names that are similar to Vietnamese, like: Long, Tsang, Hoang, Lam, Phang, etc.
That's why some people get confused by the last name and thought that Cantonese ppl are Viet. Or Viet being as Cantonese.

Last year when two of the students in my class have the same last name, Lam. They thought that they were sisters, while one is Viet and the other was Cantonese. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)

Chinese names:

Wong = Vuong in Vietnam

Chan = Tran in Vietnam

Fat = Phat in Vietnam

Hong = Hung in Vietnam

Lim = Lam in Vietnam

Lee = Li in Vietnam

Chang = Trang in Vietnam

Chinese living in Vietnam often spell their names like the Vietnamese sounding names

This post has been edited by hugo boss: Jan 5 2006, 12:54 AM

[crew]

Lam (Cantonese)=Lim (Chao Zhou)=Lin (Mandarin)

[Mr. Tree]

only ranked 9th!! pfftt i want first place!!

[luhai167]

^ Against Chen(Chan), Li(lee), Wang(wong), Zhang(Cheung), you have no chance hehe

More info on chinese surnames,

Although there are thousands of Chinese family names, the 100 most common surnames, which together make up less than 5% of those in existence, are shared by 85% of the population. The three most common surnames in Mainland China are Li, Wang and Zhang, which make up 7.9%, 7.4% and 7.1% respectively. Together they number close to 300 million and are easily the most common surnames in the world.

In a 1990 study, the top 200 family names accounted for over 96% of a random sample of 174,900 persons, with over 500 other names accounting for the remaining 4%.[2] In a different study (1987), which combined data from Taiwan and mainland China (sample size of 570,000 persons), the top 19 names covered 55.6% [3], and the top 100 names covered 87% of the sample. Other data suggest that the top 50 names comprise 70% of the population.[4]

Most commonly occurring Chinese family names have only one character; however, about twenty double-character family names have survived into the modern time. Some famous ones include Sima (司馬, simp. 司马), Zhuge (諸葛, simp. 诸葛), Ouyang or Au Yeung (歐陽, simp. 欧阳, occasionally Romanized as O'Young, giving some Anglophones an Irish impression), and Szeto (in Cantonese) (司徒 in pinyin: Situ). (There are family names with three or more characters, but those are not ethnically Han Chinese, for example, Aixinjueluo (愛新覺羅, also romanized from the Manchu language as Aisin Gioro, which was the family name of the Manchu royal family of the Qing dynasty.)

Transliteration of Chinese family names (see List of common Chinese surnames) into English poses a number of problems. It is common for the same surname to be transliterated differently and for different family names with similar pronunciations to be transliterated identically.

[Viety_Cent]

r u half viet or does ur father hav a chinese surname?

no Im full (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_wink.gif)

thx Ladies (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/love2.gif) for helping me

so Lam ranks 9th

Lam = Lim
Lam = Lin

Phi_Nguyen Posted Yesterday, 11:55 PM
  i doubt there are any chinese surnames that are used by 40 percent of the population, as is the case with nguyen in vietnamese LOL

Nguyen and Tran most common (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile.gif) i dont have those last names oh well