Modern Chinese names are made up of a surname and a personal name. The surname ("xìng" ) appears first. It is usually only one syllable. The personal name ("míng" ) appears second. It is nearly always either one or two syllables. When written, each syllable is written with one character. So a person's name will usually be written with two or three characters. For example, Wei () of the Zhang () family – currently China's most common single name – is called "Zhang Wei" and written as .