Chinese surname
Zhang / Chang
|
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
(
腸
)
(Korean)
Tr??ng
,
Trang
(Vietnamese)
Tjong
(Indonesia)
|
---|
Pronunciation
| IPA
:
/t??ŋ?/
(Mandarin IPA)
Zh?ng
(Mandarin
Pinyin
)
Zoeng1
(Cantonese
Jyutping
)
Tiuⁿ
(Hokkien
Pe?h-?e-j?
)
|
---|
Language(s)
| Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese
|
---|
|
Language(s)
| Old Chinese
|
---|
Derivation
| Nie
|
---|
Meaning
| drawing a bow,
[1]
archer
,
bowyer
, a
measure word
|
---|
Zhang
(
[??áŋ]
ⓘ
;
traditional Chinese
:
張
;
simplified Chinese
:
?
) 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
Zh?ng
. 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 24
th
name on the
Hundred Family Surnames
poem, contained in the verse 何呂施張
(He L? Sh? Zh?ng)
.
Zhang is also the pinyin romanization of the less-common surnames
章
(
Zh?ng
), which is the 40th name on the
Hundred Family Surnames
poem, and
?
(
Zh?ng
).
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.
Transliterations and Derivatives
[
edit
]
Derivatives
[
edit
]
Distribution
[
edit
]
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
(??) 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]
History
[
edit
]
Characters
[
edit
]
張
combines the
Chinese characters
弓
(
g?ng
, "bow") and
長
(
simp.
?
,
chang
, "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".
Families
[
edit
]
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
:
?
?
氏
;
traditional Chinese
:
?
陽
氏
;
pinyin
:
Q?ng Yangshi
), had a son
Hui
(
?
;
揮
;
Hu?
) who was inspired by the Heavenly Bow
constellation
(
天弓星
,
Ti?n G?ng X?ng
) to invent the bow and arrow. Hui was then promoted to "First Bow" (
弓
正
,
G?ng Zheng
) 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]
Other origins
[
edit
]
- for some families, it is traced back to Xie Zhang (解張), whose style name was Zhang Hou (張侯, lit “Marquis Zhang”) a noble in
Jin
during the
Spring and Autumn period
.
- from the family of
Zhang Liao
(張遼), an official in
Cao Wei
during
Three Kingdoms
period. Zh?ng Liao's family had changed from
Nie
to
Zhang
to avoid association with his disgraced ancestor
Nie Yi
(?壹).
[13]
- the surname is also traced back to Long Youna, chief of a minority ethnic groups during the Three Kingdoms period, who was given the Chinese surname Zhang (張) by
Zhuge Liang
, the prime minister of
Shu
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Baxter, William H.; Sagart, Laurent (2011).
Baxter?Sagart Old Chinese Reconstruction
. p. 143. Archived from
the original
on 25 April 2012
. Retrieved
11 October
2011
– via crlao.ehess.fr.
- ^
Tongji weixun ??微? (23 June 2014).
?、王、李、??最多?2010年人口普?姓氏??和分布特点
.
mp.weixin.qq.com
(in Chinese)
. Retrieved
19 October
2020
.
- ^
最新版百家姓排行榜出?:王姓成中?第一大姓
[Latest surname ranking: Wang is the number one surname in China].
Xinhua News Agency
(in Chinese). 15 April 2013. Archived from
the original
on 15 April 2013
. Retrieved
21 November
2013
.
- ^
"Zhang Family History"
.
Ancestry.ca
. Archived from
the original
on 17 July 2018
. Retrieved
17 July
2018
.
- ^
"What are the 10 most common last names in the world?"
.
Reference.com
. Archived from
the original
on 20 May 2018
. Retrieved
17 May
2018
.
- ^
公安部??分析?示:王姓成?我?第一大姓
.
新??
(in Chinese). 24 April 2007. Archived from
the original
on 29 April 2007
. Retrieved
15 March
2012
.
- ^
"Chinese Surname Shortage Sparks Rethink"
.
People's Daily Online
. 20 June 2007. Archived from
the original
on 20 February 2012
. Retrieved
15 March
2012
.
- ^
McFarlan, Donald (2001).
1990 Guinness Book of World Records
. Sterling Pub. Co.
ISBN
189205101X
.
- ^
公安部??:'王'成中?第一大姓 有9288万人
[Public Security Bureau Statistics: 'Wang' Found China's #1 'Big Family', Includes 92.88m People].
news.eastday.com
(in Chinese). 24 April 2007. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
27 March
2012
.
- ^
a
b
2019年全?姓名?告出?,?十?姓名使用最多
.
新京??
(in Chinese). 20 January 2020. Archived from
the original
on 23 March 2020
. Retrieved
23 March
2020
.
- ^
"Popular Chinese Surnames in Singapore"
.
Statistics Singapore
. Archived from
the original
on 23 February 2008
. Retrieved
14 April
2012
.
- ^
Shah, Baiju R.; Chiu, Maria; Amin, Shubarna; Ramani, Meera; Sadry, Sharon; Tu, Jack V. (2010).
"Surname Lists to Identify South Asian and Chinese Ethnicity from Secondary Data in Ontario, Canada: A Validation Study"
.
BMC Medical Research Methodology
.
10
(1): 42.
doi
:
10.1186/1471-2288-10-42
.
PMC
2877682
.
PMID
20470433
.
- ^
(本?壹之後,以避怨變姓。)
Sanguozhi
. Vol. 17.
100 most common family names in mainland China (2020)
|
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1?25
| |
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26?50
| |
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51?75
| |
---|
76?100
| |
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Related
| |
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