Ancient surnames such as Yao surname and Ji surname all originated from matriarchal clan society more than 2,000 years ago BC, and have been one of the longest surnames in China for nearly 5,000 years. Yao's surname came from Yu Shun, and Shun (Yu Yu's real name: Zhong Hua) was born in the site of Yao's family, and later generations took the land as their surname, which was called Yao's family. The distribution of Yao surname in China is mainly concentrated in Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.
The origin of surnames can be traced back to the matriarchal clan system in primitive human society, so many ancient surnames in China are beside or at the bottom of female characters. Surname is a specific symbol to distinguish clans, such as the name of a tribe or the name of a tribal leader. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor lived on the bank of Jishui and took Ji as his surname. Living next door, taking Jiang as his surname. Dayu was in charge of water conservancy, and the emperor made great contributions and gave his surname as the secretary. In addition, the son of a tribal leader can also have a surname. The Yellow Emperor had twenty-five sons, fourteen of whom were given surnames, namely Ji, You, Qi, Ji, Teng, Ren, Xun, Wei, Xian and Yi, and four of them belonged to the second surname. After Zhu Rong, he established eight surnames for himself, namely, Dong, Peng, Bald, Yi, Cao, Zhu and Mi, which was called Zhu Rong's eight surnames in history.