What the Chinese surname Ma, meaning ‘horse’, symbolises and its path through history

From auspicious horse-themed phrases and couplets to whether your luck is in, check out our Year of the Horse 2026 series to discover all you need to know about the coming Lunar New Year.\nThere have been many influential figures with the surname Ma throughout history, from the Han dynasty army general Ma Yuan and American-born cellist prodigy Yo-Yo Ma to Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun and Tencent chief executive Pony Ma.\nRanking as the 13th most common surname in mainland China, Ma carries connotations of speed, vitality and a unique multicultural history.\nAt its most literal level, Ma means “horse” – a symbol of success, power and unyielding spirit in Chinese culture.\nLike many Chinese characters, the one for “Ma” is a pictograph, resembling the shape of a horse; the head, tail and four legs are visible in the traditional character’s shape, with the three strokes on the back resembling a horse’s mane.\n“In Qin and Han dynasty script, the horse’s ‘legs’ and ‘tail’ were written with five strokes together,” says Law Yin-ling, a professor of Chinese language studies at the Education University of Hong Kong. “Later, the first four strokes gradually evolved into four dots, becoming the form used in regular script today.”\n\nThe name’s auspicious association with the wild and powerful horse has made it a source of pride for those with it. Etched into the name are the scars of history – a road map of stories shaped by the shifting tides of war and the weary paths of migration.\nIn his 2025 article “Reconstructing the Huang Surname and Its Related Lineages”, Shi Huang, a researcher at China’s Central South University, wrote that Chinese surnames began to form around 5,000 years ago. By 4,000 years ago, the eight major ancient surnames – Ji, Jiang, Yao, Gui, Si, Ying, Yun and another last name also romanised as Ji – existed, which are considered the ancestors of the roughly 23,000 surnames recorded throughout Chinese history.\nYing is believed to be the ancestor of 14 present-day surnames: Huang, Xu, Liang, Zhao, Qin, Jiang, Ge, Zhai, Gu, Xiao, Zhong, Miao, Fei and Ma. Five of these surnames are among the top 13 most common surnames in China today, including Huang (seventh), Zhao (eighth), Xu (11th) and Ma (13th).\nThe origin of the surname Ma is not necessarily tied to the animal itself, but rather to a prestigious title – as many Chinese surnames tend to be. Law says that as part of the Ying lineage, Ma originated as an honorific title even before the establishment of imperial Chinese dynasties.\nThe Yuanhe Xingzuan, an imperial Tang dynasty register of the genealogy of China’s prominent families, records the existence of Zhao She, a great general of the State of Zhao.\n“King Huiwen recognised [Zhao’s] military achievements in 270BC by bestowing him the title ‘Lord of Mafu’, and rewarded him the land of Mafu – which is in the present-day northwest of Handan city in Hebei province,” Law says of events during China’s Warring States period (475BC-221BC).\n\nZhao’s descendants became known as the Mafu clan and eventually began simply adopting the first character, Ma, as their family name. In this way, the surnames Zhao and Ma are connected through common ancestry, as corroborated by researcher Shi.\n“This branch is traditionally considered the main line of the Ma clan,” says Law, who draws largely from Zhongguo Xingshi Cidian, a 1995 dictionary of Chinese names by scholars Chen Mingyuan and Wang Zonghu.\nMost Chinese surnames began as a way for families to identify with their homeland or settlement. Others evolved from the names and titles of ancestors or the professional ranks held by family members. In certain instances, receiving a surname was an honour, as rulers would gift their own royal names to favoured subjects.\nBut one of the most fascinating aspects of the Ma surname, separate from the Mafu lineage, is its prevalence among Chinese Muslim ethnic groups such as the Uygurs and the Hui people. “In this context, Ma serves as a Sinicised version of ‘Muhammad’ as the Islamic prophet’s name has often been translated as mahama in Chinese texts,” Law says.\n\nFor example, the famous Ma clique, also known as the Ma family warlords, was the collective designation for a group of Hui warlords who governed Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia in northwestern China from 1919 until 1928.\n“Some even say the surname Ma originates from the word mar,” Law explains, which translates to “my Lord” in Syriac, an ancient Aramaic dialect.\nShe adds that this could support hypotheses that the last name began in the western region of China before its descendants migrated across the country.\nHowever, apart from the romanisation of Ma and the occasional Mah, the surname also manifests itself in various spellings depending on the Chinese dialect. For example, in Teochew, a dialect common to the Chaoshan region of southern China, the name is instead romanised as Beh, alongside other Chinese surnames Mai and Bai.\nGiven the significant migration of southern Chinese communities to neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Beh is also commonly found among Malaysian-Chinese people.\nToday, whether pronounced Ma, Mah or Beh, this lineage represents a vibrant tapestry of Han, Muslim and diasporic communities, underscoring its enduring legacy in Chinese and global history.\n