The surname stroke order is a Chinese name ordering system. It arose as an impartial method of categorization of the order in which names appear in official documentation or in ceremonial procedure without any line of hierarchy. In official setting, the number of stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

s in a person's surname

Chinese surname

Chinese family names have been historically used by Han Chinese and Sinicized Chinese ethnic groups in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames, family names and clan names , existed.The colloquial expressions laobaixing...

 determines where a name should be placed and the list order. Surnames "Ding

Ding (surname)

Ding is the simplest written Chinese family name in existence . It is written in two strokes and is first on the Chinese surname stroke order.-Speculated origins:...

" and "Wang

Wang (surname)

Wang is a Chinese family name and one of the most common surnames in the world. It is ranked 8th in the Hundred Family Surnames, and first in the People's Republic of China's National Citizen ID Information System . Wang is ranked as the most common surname in mainland China, with 92.88 million...

" (written simply in the Chinese language with two and four strokes, respectively, "丁", "王") for example, are simple surnames that usually appear on the front of lists, while surnames such as "Dai" and "Wei

Wei (surname)

Wei is a Chinese surname. It was ranked the 122th most common Chinese surname in 2006.-List of people with the surname Wei :* Wei Chen, a Chinese singer and actor* Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese dissident* Wei Qing, a general of the Western Han Dynasty...

" ("戴", "魏", both written with 17 strokes) often appear on the bottom of lists.

It is similar to an alphabetical order of names, but in Chinese this is impractical as the Chinese written language

Chinese written language

Written Chinese comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language, and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated. Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary...

 lacks an alphabetical structure, and the general populace does not rely on the pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

 romanization, from which some order schemes have developed.

See also

• Chinese name
  Chinese name
  Personal names in Chinese culture follow a number of conventions different from those of personal names in Western cultures. Most noticeably, a Chinese name is written with the family name first and the given name next, therefore "John-Paul Smith" as a Chinese name would be "Smith John-Paul"...
  
  
• Stroke order
  Stroke order
  Stroke order refers to the order in which the strokes of a Chinese character are written. A stroke is a movement of a writing instrument on a writing surface. Chinese characters are used in various forms in Chinese, Japanese, and in Korean...
  
  
• An example of surname stroke order in the Communist Party's Central Committee membership list