Shortages in China: energy? water? food? -- nope, Chinese surnames

Imagine that! Of all the things that China, with its 1.3 billion people, might find in short supply you would probably never have guessed that it would be names. But that is the case. It seems that most of the population share a very small number of 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. For example 93 million people in China with the family name Wang. Another report by the Chinese Academy of Sciences found at least 100,000 people share China's most popular name, Wang Tao.You can read the details here: Chinese surname shortage sparks rethink.

This adds a tremendous amount of complexity to record keeping. What about deciphering between all those Wang Tao's at airport security. Homeland security in the United States has no-fly lists with names of people who have restricted access to travel or must go through additional security screening. There must be at least one person of concern named Wang Tao among 100,000 people. That leaves a whole lot of innocent folks who will not appreciate their airport experience.

Will they have to put fingerprints on all the new stock certificates they are issuing to avoid confusion? Think of all the cases of mistaken identity in the United States, now magnify that by 1,000 -- that calls for an "oh my gosh" at least, more likely a shriek if you are involved in the matter. So with all the problems this rapidly developing country has to endure, China is befuddled with name calling.

Those of you who are new to BloggingStocks can check out my other stories and read Chasing Value or Serious Money to find more potential opportunities and verify my track record as well. Disclosure: I own shares of four Chinese companies ACH, HNP, PTR, and SNDA, as of this writing.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.