What’s In A Name?

Family 'dropping uncomputable surname'

A Chinese family has reportedly started the process of changing their shared surname because it cannot be recognised by computers.

According to BBC News, the 200 members of the Shaan family from Shandong province spell their name with an unusual local variant.

A Shandong paper reports that the rare spelling of Shaan, which is a cross between the symbol for "three" and sign for "and", is not recognised by computers.

Coding systems are often used to convert pictorial Chinese characters for printing purposes, but some are so unusual that they are never assigned a code.
Members of the family have had to change the spelling of their name when they apply for a machine-issued residence permit or driving licence.

The family are now changing their name to a more-easily recognised form of the word.