Yao's name in Stats section

That's how NBA.com does it in their box score.

It says M. Yao in it.

I dunno, maybe it has to do with Chinese naming but Yao is commonly perceived as somewhat of a last name.

If someone could explain that would be great.

 

Yao is his family name...Ming is his personal name.

It's just said the other way around in China (to the best of my understanding).

 

Change it to "Yao" in the stat section for consistency. I approve this message.

Or better yet, we can combine Yao Ming's name into "Mao", and he'll be known as Mao from now on, kinda like Madonna or Shaq.

 

lol, this is a great idea.

 

Referring Yao as "Ming" definitely has one benefit. When a fight broke out in Clutch BBS between "Ming" fans and McGrady fans, both sides started to call the other faction MOFs but soon enough they would realize it was a pointless exercise and thus stop fighting. That in turn saves Clutch from booting anyone.

 

It's all the Chinese communists' fault. They arbitrarily decided to put Chinese people's last name first. Now let's invade China and straighten this out!

Bring democracy to China!!

Now have I succeeded to get this thread moved to the B&B?

 

Mm that's some useful information. So in China they say last name first then first name. Makes more sense.

 

I'm a Chinese rockets' fan,Yao is the last name and Ming is the first name.It's the tradition in China.Wish rockets get over 60 wins this season and the champion in NBA Finals

 

I wonder if that's a kind of respect your heritage thing -- putting those who came before you first and yourself second

 

that's the answer

 

normally when chinese immigrants move over to the US they flip their names for the purpose of less confusion. For example Yao Ming would be exchanged in favor of Ming (first name) Yao (last name). personally, i was rather surprised that yao didn't do this when he came over to the league but it's a minor detail.

 

If you say his last name first, isn't that a first name?

 

As someone mentioned, that is how the NBA and all other stat places have it listed. It would be extremely difficult to go back in the database and alter every instance of it at this point, unfortunately.

 

hold on, so let me get this straight. Yao is the family name, Ming is his personal name.

so his father's name would be for example: Yao John


and one more thing, does his parents call him "Ming" or do they call him "Yao"?

anyone knows if Ming Yao has a nick-name?

 

There is an interesting phenomenon in China .When a person is young, people always like to call his first name with a prefix amiably. Just like that when Yao was in his rookie year, most of Chinese fans called him little Ming.
Now Yao has his fourth NBA year and had unusual longevity in the CNT compared to his teammates. So his CNT buddies call him big Yao.
So if you are older than Yao, just call him little Ming or younger than Yao, call him big Yao.
In China, it’s rare and weird to call somebody’s name with just a single word such as Yao or Ming with the exception of couples and lovers. Official press calls him Yao Ming.
Sorry for my poor English, hope you guys can understand a little bit.

 

That's interesting. I guess we should call him "big Yao" then.

 

But they don't call it 'last name' over there. I think they say 'family name'. If you ask someone what his/her last name is over there, I don't think the person would understand what you are asking. I guess the posters call it 'last name' here just to make it easier for everyone to understand what they are talking about.

 

No, "Mao" represents a great man in China..He lead Chinese open the country like Washington in the USA.