Chinese Orphans Won't Be Named 'State' or 'Party'

No longer will "state" or "party" be the last name of children in Chinese orphanages, Jezebel reports via MSNBC. Until now, orphanages commonly gave kids those generic surnames—which enabled people to peg them as orphans for life and leave them feeling marginalized. So China issued the rule last week, echoing the comment of a child welfare worker in a state newspaper: "We don't want children who grow up in orphanages to carry labels that imply they are different from those who have parents."

Now orphanages are asked to pick from among the 100 most typical Chinese surnames. Says a Chinese NGO worker of the nation's tens of thousands of orphans: "This move shows the government is paying more attention to these children's psychological needs, which helps their development." Which names are most common? Asia-Home.com runs down the top 100. (More China orphanage stories.)