Romanization | Chang, Zhang (Mandarin) Cheung (Cantonese) Cheong (Macao, Malaysia) Tiong, Diong (Eastern Min) Tsan, Tsaon (Shanghainese) Teoh, Teo (Hokkien, Teochew) Tew (Teochew) Chong, Cheong (Hakka) Cheong (Gan) Jang, Chang (장) (Korean) Trương, Trang (Vietnamese) Tjong (Indonesia) |
---|---|
Pronunciation | IPA: /tʂɑŋ˥/(Mandarin IPA) Zhāng (Mandarin Pinyin) Zoeng1 (Cantonese Jyutping) Tiuⁿ (Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī) |
Language(s) | Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese |
Origin | |
Language(s) | Old Chinese |
Derivation | Nie |
Meaning | drawing a bow, [1] archer, bowyer, a measure word |
Zhang ( [ʈʂáŋ] ; traditional Chinese : 張 ; simplified Chinese : 张 ) is the third most common surname in China and Taiwan (commonly spelled as Chang in Taiwan), and it is one of the most common surnames in the world. [2] [3] It is spoken in the first tone Zhāng. It is a surname that exists in many languages and cultures, corresponding to the surname 'Archer' in English for example. [4] In the Wade–Giles system of romanization, it is romanized as Chang, which is commonly used in Taiwan. Cheung is commonly used in Hong Kong as a romanization. It is the 24th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem, contained in the verse 何呂施張 (Hé Lǚ Shī Zhāng).
Zhang is also the pinyin romanization of the less-common surnames 章 (Zhāng), which is the 40th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem, and 仉 (Zhǎng).
Today, it is one of the most common surnames in the world at over 100 million people worldwide. [5] Zhang was listed by the People's Republic of China's National Citizen ID Information System as the third-most-common surname in mainland China (April 2007), with 87.50 million bearers. [6] [7]
A commonly cited but erroneous factoid in the 1990 Guinness Book of Records listed it as the world's most common surname, [8] but no comprehensive information from China was available at the time and more recent editions have not repeated the claim.
As mentioned above, 張 is the third-most-common surname in mainland China, making up 6.83% of the population of the People's Republic of China. [9] In 2019 it was the most common surname in exactly one provincial-level division, Shanghai municipality. [10] In Taiwan, 張 is the fourth-most-common surname, making up 5.26% of the population of the Republic of China. In 2019 it was again the third most common surname in Mainland China. [10]
Zhang Wei (张伟) has been the most common family name and given name combination in China for many years.
Among the Chinese diaspora, the name remains common but takes on various romanizations. "Teo" and "Chong" are amongst the most common surnames among Chinese Singaporeans, listed at 11th and 19th respectively; [11] "Chang" is the 6th-most-common surname among Chinese Americans; and "Zhang" was the 7th-most-common particularly Chinese surname found in a 2010 survey of Ontario's Registered Persons Database of Canadian health card recipients. [12]
張 combines the Chinese characters 弓 (gōng, "bow") and 長 ( simp. 长 , cháng, "long" or "wide"). It originally meant "to open up" or "to spread" as an arching bow, but as a common noun in modern use it is a measure word for flat objects such as paper and cloth, like the English "sheet of".
The traditional origin of the surname 張 (Old Chinese: *C. traŋ [1] ) is rooted in Chinese legend. The fifth son of the Yellow Emperor, Qing Yangshi (simplified Chinese : 青 阳 氏 ; traditional Chinese : 青 陽 氏 ; pinyin :Qīng Yángshì), had a son Hui ( 挥 ; 揮 ; Huī) who was inspired by the Heavenly Bow constellation ( 天弓星 , Tiān Gōng Xīng) to invent the bow and arrow. Hui was then promoted to "First Bow" ( 弓 正 , Gōng Zhèng) and bestowed the surname 張, which –when broken into its constituent radicals –means "widening bow" or "archer". Its Middle Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as Trjang. [1]
Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the Western tradition in which surnames are written last. Around 2,000 Han Chinese surnames are currently in use, but the great proportion of Han Chinese people use only a relatively small number of these surnames; 19 surnames are used by around half of the Han Chinese people, while 100 surnames are used by around 87% of the population. A report in 2019 gives the most common Chinese surnames as Wang and Li, each shared by over 100 million people in China. The remaining eight of the top ten most common Chinese surnames are Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou.
Wang is the pinyin romanization of the common Chinese surname 王 (Wáng). It is currently the most common surname in Mainland China, one of the most common surnames in Asia, with more than 107 million in Asia. It is the 8th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames.
Chinese names are personal names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Sinophone world. Sometimes the same set of Chinese characters could be chosen as a Chinese name, a Hong Kong name, a Japanese name, a Korean name, a Malaysian Chinese name, or a Vietnamese name, but they would be spelled differently due to their varying historical pronunciation of Chinese characters.
Lu is the pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization of several distinct Chinese surnames that are written with different characters in Chinese. Depending on the character, it may be spelled Lú, Lǔ, or Lù when pinyin tone diacritics are used. Lu 盧 and Lu 陸 are the most common: both are among the 100 most common surnames in China. Languages using the Latin alphabet do not distinguish among the different Chinese surnames, rendering them all as Lu.
Cháng is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 常 (Cháng). It was listed 80th among the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames.
Dai is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written with the Chinese character 戴. It is romanized as Tai in Wade-Giles and in Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation. Dai is the 96th most common surname in China, according to a report on the household registrations released by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on April 24, 2007.
Yao, also romanized as Yiu in Cantonese, is one of the most ancient Chinese surnames, the "Eight Great Xings of High Antiquity". It is also unique that, along with Jiang 姜 it is still in common use in the modern day. It is listed 101st in the Hundred Family Surnames, and as the 51st most common surname in Mainland China.
Lü is the pinyin and Wade–Giles romanisation of a Chinese surname, most commonly 吕 and 呂.
Gong is the pinyin romanization of several distinct Chinese surnames, including 宫, 龔, 共, 公, 鞏, 功, 貢, and 弓. It may also be an alternative transcription of the surname Kong, or the Jyutping romanization of the Chinese surname Jiang.
This article contains lists of the most common surnames in some of the countries of Asia, in alphabetical order of the country.
Cheung is a Cantonese romanization of several Chinese surnames, including 張, 章, and 蔣.
As a surname, Heng may refer to:
Wāng (汪) is a Chinese surname. It was 104th of the Hundred Family Surnames poem, contained in the verse Yáo, Shào, Zhàn, Wāng (姚邵湛汪). In 2013, the Fuxi Cultural Association found the name to be the 60th most common in China, being shared by around 4.83 million people or 0.360% of the population, with the province with the largest population being Anhui. Another study found it to be the 58th-most-common surname in mainland China.
Li or Lee is a common Chinese surname, it is the 4th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames. Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million in Asia. It is the second-most common surname in China as of 2018, the second-most common surname in Hong Kong, the most common surname in Macau and the 5th most common surname in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Lee". The surname is pronounced as in Cantonese, Lí (poj) in Taiwanese Hokkien, but is often spelled as "Lee" in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand and many overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as "Lei". In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as "Lie". The common Korean surname, "Lee", and the Vietnamese surname, "Lý", are both derived from Lee and written with the same Chinese character (李). The character also means "plum" or "plum tree".
Jiang is one of the oldest Chinese surnames, being one of the original xing (姓) surnames. It was one of the "Eight Great Xings of High Antiquity", along with Jī (姬), Yáo (姚), Yíng (嬴), Sì (姒), Yún (妘), Guī (媯) and Rèn (妊), though some sources quote Jí (姞) as the last one instead of Rèn. Of these xing, only Jiang and Yao have survived in their original form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. It is the 32nd surname listed in the Song dynasty-era Hundred Family Surnames poem. It is the 60th most common surname in China (2007), roughly 0.34% of the Han Chinese population. The Lu clan of Fanyang stem from this surname before taking on the Lu (盧) surname. Derivative surnames of Jiang include Zhang, Lü, Qiu, Shen., These originated:
Jiang is a Chinese surname, accounting for 0.26% of the Han Chinese population. It is the 52nd most common Chinese surname and is the 141st surname listed in the Hundred Family Surnames poem, contained in the line 江童顏郭. It is the 75th most common surname in China (2007), and the 25th most common surname in Taiwan (2010).
The eight great surnames of Chinese antiquity were among the most important Chinese surnames in Chinese antiquity. They are all Chinese ancestral surnames, and as such, have Chinese clan surnames branching off from them. During the earliest Chinese antiquity, Chinese society focused on women. Family names often passed from women to their children. Because of this phenomenon, these eight surnames have a component of their hanzi representing the character woman (女).