In Han Chinese society people long ago gathered together in great populations, giving rise to Chinese institutions regarding the clan, the people and the nation. The aborigines of Taiwan, on the other hand, lived in scattered settlements across the wilderness, and even different villages of the same people might have no contact with each other. As a result, the way they have chosen names differs greatly from the Han Chinese.
在漢人社會中，早有眾多人口聚居，而逐漸發展出各種制度典章、氏族王國；台灣原住民則散居山巔水湄，甚至同一族的不同部落，可能彼此終其一生也不相往來，於是有著與漢人截然不同的命名觀。