Chen (surname)


For other uses, see Chen.
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Chen
Family name
SurnameChen.svg
陳,陈; Chén
Meaning after a region in Henan

Chén (simplified Chinese: 陈; traditional Chinese: 陳; pinyin: Chén; Wade-Giles: Ch'en) is one of the most common Chinese family names. It ranks at the 5th most popular surname in China and the most popular surname in Singapore and Taiwan. Chen is also the most common family name in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian (spelt Chan, Chin or Tan in Singapore and Malaysia), Hong Kong (spelt Chan in Hong Kong and Macau). It is usually romanised as Chan in Cantonese, and sometimes as Chun. In Min (including dialects of Chaozhou (Teochow), Hainan, Fujian, and Taiwan), the name is pronounced Tan. In Hakka and Toisan, the name is spelled and pronounced as Chin. Some other Romanisations include Zen (from Wu), Ding and Chern.

In Vietnam, this surname is written in Quoc Ngu as Trần, and is the second most popular Vietnamese surname, accounting for 11% of the population,[1] after the surname Nguyễn (38.4%).

According to an unofficial count undertaken by the American company infoUSA, "Chan" is the 19th most common surname (and the third most common Chinese surname) found in Canadian telephone directories.[2]

Contents

History

The initial surname Chen was from Gui (traditional Chinese: 媯; pinyin: Gūi), which was an ancient Chinese surname of descendants of Emperor Shun, who was one of the Three August Ones and Five Emperors. When King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou Dynasty, he gave the Land of Chen to the descendants to establish their own state. To show his respect for Emperor Shun, the new state, which was also named by Chen, was one of the Three Guest States of Zhou (Chinese: 三恪; pinyin: Sān Kè), which meant this nation was not the subordinate, but the guest of Zhou. However, the Chen state was occupied by Chu after the 10th century BC. Since then, the people of this state began to use Chen as their surname.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), Emperor Wu of Chen established the Chen Dynasty (557-589), the fourth and the last of the Southern dynasties in China, eventually destroyed by the Sui Dynasty.

Other pronunciations

Notable people

Fictional characters with surname Chen

References

  1. ^ Họ và tên người Việt Nam của Lê Trung Hoa, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học - Xã hội, 2005
  2. ^ "Common surnames". CBC.ca (CBC News). 2007-07-26. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/name-change/common-surnames.html. Retrieved 2008-01-27. "...the source is a Nebraska-based company called infoUSA, which claims to have put together a directory of every telephone listing in Canada." 

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