Who knew that China only had 100 last names?

BEIJING (AFP) - With more than a billion people now sharing just 100 surnames, Chinese authorities are considering a landmark move to try to end the confusion, state media reported Tuesday... survey found 92 million people shared the surname Li, while 88 million were called Zhang. A further seven surnames -- including Chen, Zhou and Lin -- are held by at least 20 million Chinese...Another report by the Chinese Academy of Sciences found at least 100,000 people share China's most popular name, Wang Tao.

Under a new draft regulation released by the ministry of public security, parents will be able to combine their surnames for their children, a move that could open up 1.28 million new possibilities, the China Daily reported.

For instance, a father named Zhou and mother named Zhu could choose to call their child either Zhou, Zhu, Zhouzhu or Zhuzhou, the report added...The draft also allows ethnic minorities to register some letters and characters among new names, but bans any foreign letters.

Damn I guess that means that Smith and Hill are out????? How can a country ban letters? I'm still tryin to wrap my head around that one...