姓氏是表明家族系统的称号。“姓”和“氏”原来有分别,“姓者,统其祖考之所自出;氏者,别其子孙之所自分”。在母系社会,子女随母姓,发展到父系社会后,改随父姓。随着同一祖先的子孙繁衍增多,一个家族往往会分成若干支而散居各处。各个分支的子孙除了保留姓以外,另外为自己取一个称号作为标志,这就是“氏”。也就是说,姓是一个家族所有后代的共同称号,而氏则 Surname is the title of the family system. “Surname ” and “Clan ” originally had a difference, “Surname person, the system of its ancestral test from the self; In the matriarchal society, children with mother surname, developed into a patriarchal society, change his father’s surname. As more children of the same ancestor multiply, a family often divides into several branches and diaspora. Descendants of each branch in addition to retaining the surname, in addition to take a title for themselves as a symbol, this is ”s ". In other words, surname is the common title of all descendants of a family, while the family