You must not think of it! Some people with the surname "tiger" read māo...

The Year of the Tiger is coming soon

Recently, the word "tiger" was used as a pronunciation of the surname

It has aroused widespread discussion among netizens

Do you know what the word "tiger" reads when used as a surname?

The answer you must not think!

"Tiger" is a surname, but it may not be pronounced as "hǔ", but can also be pronounced as "māo". Huang Anjing, editor-in-chief of "Chewing Words", said that pronouncing "māo" is a rare exception to reading, and generally reads "hǔ". For example, in some Tujia areas in Hubei, "tiger" is sometimes called "māo", especially for elderly people, who generally do not read "hǔ". Including some life tools, such as "axes", they are called "cats". (Homophonous "axe" and "tiger" in the local dialect)

Origin of the tiger surname

It is understood that in the mainland, the number of tiger surnames in the crowd is extremely rare, mainly distributed in Zhaotong, Yunnan and Chengdu, Sichuan, Xindu District, Pidu District, in addition to Gansu, Nanjing, Guizhou, there are also tiger surnames.

Liu Dongxu, an associate professor at the Minzu University of China, said: "More special surnames such as 'Tiger' are related to historical development. Historically, the origin of the tiger surname probably has two sources:

The first is from the descendants of Bo Hu, one of the "Eight Yuan" of the ancient Shunchen, with the tiger as the clan. According to ancient historical legends, Bo Hu was the minister of Emperor Zhao. The descendants of the Bohu clan then took the tiger as the surname and called the tiger clan, which became an important source of today's tiger family.

The second is the tiger surname from the Hui ethnic group. The tiger surname in the Hui people is taken from the first sound of the ancestral name. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the Western Regions people of the Western Regions, Qiu Kebier, lived in Nanjing to serve as the deputy qianhu of Jinyi Wei, and his son Hu Bei'er, who took Hu Bei'er as his surname, included Sun Huxian and Huma Town.

Comprehensive: Popular Science China, China News Network, Xinhua News Agency

Producer/Ren Yongwei

Editor-in-Chief/Bei Zhang

Editor on duty / Severe rain and cold