China to Ban Surnames That Indicate Orphan Status | NewsFeed | TIME.com.
In a move that will be appreciated by the children, China is implementing regulations forbidding orphanages from giving children generic surnames like Dang (political party) and Guo (nation or state). They got these surnames because the staff figures they were appropriate for children cared for by the government. They did not consider the stigma, though, of living your life labeled as an orphan. The alternative will be to pick a surname from the top 100 Chinese family names. This will make things more difficult for future genealogists, but that will be more than made up for by the children having regular surnames.
