Nowadays descendants of the Confucius family are widely spread all over China including Anhui, Fujiang, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei,  Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shangdong, Shangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces.  By the end of the twentieth century, one can find descendants of Confucius family all over the world including Japan, Southern Korea, Northern Korea, Singapore, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, England, Russia, Switzerland, Canada and USA.

孔氏後裔不但可以說遍佈全國，在安徽，福建，甘肅，廣東，廣西，貴州,  海南，河北，黑龍江，河南，湖南，江蘇，江西，吉林，遼寧，青海，陝西，山東，山西，四川，台灣,  雲南和浙江等省, 有孔氏的後裔，而在上世紀後年期，孔子後裔已遍及世界各地，在日本，韓國，朝鮮，新加坡，印尼，馬來西亞，緬甸，香港，澳洲，俄國，英國，瑞士，加拿大和美國等地，也有孔氏後人。

There is always one question asked. How do one know who is the genuine descendant?  As mentioned above, the Confucius family has an excellent genealogical record book in Qufu. As shown above we can tell accurately the name, the generation and the location where a descendant migrated. One can always find a local branch record book logged the name of ancestors as well as the newborn babies. If one cannot provide the names of the previous three or four generations correctly, that person would be questionable. We also have a special naming system decreed from emperors. Descendants of every generation from all branches observed the naming system called “Heng Bei”or 行輩 in Chinese.  Names from the 58th to 65th generations started from a decree from the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty; the next ten names, i.e. 66th –75th generations, were from the sixteenth emperor of Ming Dynasty.  While the 76th to 85th names were from the seventh emperor of the Ching Dynasty (清朝). While the last twenty names i.e. from 86-105 generations, were approved by the government at the Republic time. From the name list, we can identify the generation sequence of an individual in the family. The following list is the official middle names that a genuine descendant must be used. The list is in the order of generation sequence first, then the name in Chinese and the name in pinyin.  56希 Xi, 57言 Yan, 58公 Gong, 59彦 Yan, 60承 Cheng, 61宏 Hong, 62闻 Wen, 63贞 Zhen, 64尚 Sheng, 65衍 Yan, 66兴 Xing, 67毓 Yu, 68传 Chuan, 69继 Ji, 70广 Guang, 71昭 Zhao, 72宪 Xian, 73庆 Qing, 74繁 Fan, 75祥 Xiang, 76令 Ling, 77德 De, 78维 Wei, 79垂 Chui, 80佑 You, 81钦 Qin, 82绍 Shao, 83念 Nian, 84显 Xian,85扬 Yang, 86建 Jian, 87道 Dao, 88敦 Dun, 89安 An, 90定 Ding, 91懋 Mao, 92修    Xiu, 93肈 Zhao, 94彝 Yi, 95常 Chang, 96裕 Yu, 97文 Wen, 98焕 Huan, 99景 Jing, 100瑞 Rui, 101永 Yong, 102锡 Xi, 103世 Shi, 104绪 Xu, 105昌 Chang.    

常有人問，如可知道誰是真正的孔氏子孫？正如前文提過，因為孔家在曲阜有一冊完善的族譜。因為族譜的原故，我們可以在前文準確地提及外遷何地子孫的姓名及代數。在每一個真正的支派的家祠，總有一冊支譜，記錄著前代及新生子孫的名字。如果沒有法子說出前三或四代的字號，那人的真實性便是可疑。而且孔家受帝皇賜下的命名制度，全族各代子孫也依照制度命名。第五十八代至第六十五代的行輩字派是由明朝第二位皇帝惠帝所定；第六十六代至第七十五代的行輩字派是由明朝第十六位皇帝崇禎所定。第七十六代至第八十五代的行輩字派是由清朝第七位皇帝同治所定；第八十六代至第一百零五代的行輩字派是由民國政府所批準。由名字上，我們便可以準確地知道誰是屬於那一代的子孫。（以上所列是宗親會所審定各代行輩字派，連漢語拼音，不再在此另錄）。