In Chinese the way of asking strangers and people of authority "What is your name?" is very different from Western languages. The question "What is your last name?" literally translates to "Your honourable name". Say "Nín guì xìng?" (您贵姓). Rather than saying the informal nǐ (你) for "you" stick an "n" on the end and use the second rising tone and say "Nín". Interestingly, the character for nín is written the same as nǐ but also has a heart radical. Guì (贵) literally means honourable or esteemed and xìng (姓) means last or surname. The whole phrase when meeting somebody for the first time would be "Qǐngwèn，Nín guì xìng?" (请问您贵姓?) or, "Excuse me, what is your honorable surname?"
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