Surname Shortage in China

No seriously, China is running out of surnames to use. In a population of about 1.3 billion, 85% of these people share around 100 surnames, including 93 million called Wang, 92 million called Li and 88 million called Zhang.

So how do the Chinese authorities plan to solve this dilemma?

You get two surnames instead of one.

Presently, children in China can only take on either their mother or father's name, but not both. The Chinese Authorities are considering drafting up a new regulation which allows children to combine their parents' surnames, opening up possibilities for another 1.28 million surnames. For example, if a father was called Zhou, and a mother was called Zhu, their child can be called either: Zhou, Zhu, Zhouzhu or Zhuzhou... Or how about Mr Wangwang? Yes... I'm feeling pretty skeptical about this, I mean what will happen if two parents, with two surnames each, have a child? Will the child have four surnames i.e. Miss Wangwangwangwang, or try this on for size: Mr Wangliwangli?

Maybe surnames shouldn't only be China's concern, I mean the English names these people come up with, I've met my share of Apples, Rainbows and Shadows over here... the Chinese tend to be VERY creative when it comes to English names...