Zhang (surname)


Zhang is the pinyin romanization of the very common Chinese surname written ' in simplified characters and ' in traditional characters. 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. Chang is the Wade-Giles romanization; Cheung is commonly used in Hong Kong as romanization.
It is also the pinyin romanization of the less-common surnames ', which is the 40th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem. There is the even-less common '.
張 was listed 24th in the famous Song-era Hundred Family Surnames, contained in the verse 何呂施張. Today, it is one of the most common surnames in the world at over 100 million people worldwide. 張 was listed by the People's Republic of China's National Citizen ID Information System as the third-most-common surname in mainland China in April 2007, with 87.50 million bearers. A commonly cited but erroneous factoid in the 1990 Guinness Book of Records listed it as the world's most common surname, but no comprehensive information from China was available at the time and more recent editions have not repeated the claim.

Romanization

張 are also commonly romanized as Chang in Taiwan and among the Chinese diaspora using the older Wade-Giles system. Both are also romanized as Cheung in Hong Kong; Cheong in Macao and Malaysia; Teo and Teoh in Teochew; Chong and Cheong in Hakka; Tsan and Tsaon among Wu Chinese varieties like Shanghainese; Cheong in Gan; and Tiong in East Malaysia and the Philippines; and Tjong, Sutiono or Thiono in Indonesia.
張 is the Hanja of the Korean surname romanized Jang and Chang. It remains the Kanji for the Japanese surname romanized Chō.
In Vietnamese, 張 is the Chữ Nôm form of the Vietnamese surname Trương.

Distribution

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. In 2019 it was the most common surname in exactly one provincial-level division, Shanghai municipality. 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.
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. "Chong" is the 19th-most-common surname among Chinese Singaporeans; "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.

History

Characters

張 combines the Chinese characters and . 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

The traditional origin of the surname 張 is rooted in Chinese legend. The fifth son of the Yellow Emperor, Qing Yangshi, had a son Hui who was inspired by the Heavenly Bow constellation to invent the bow and arrow. Hui was then promoted to "First Bow" and bestowed the surname 張, whichwhen broken into its constituent radicalsmeans "widening bow" or "archer". Its Middle Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as Trjang.

Other origins

/

Those whose original surnames at birth are Zhang are also included on this list.
;Historical figures
;Science and mathematics
;Government and military
;Entertainment
;Writers
;Sports
;Others
;Fictional and mythological characters
;Tiong
;Tjong
;Cheong