The han Surname
han Name Meaning and History
- Chinese
: from the name of a state of Han, which
existed during the early part of the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771
bc), in present-day Shaanxi province. This was the fief of a
younger brother of Cheng Wang, second king of the Zhou dynasty. The
state of Han was later annexed by the state of Jin, but the area was
enfeoffed by the Jin ruler to Wu Zi, a descendant of Wen Wang. Wu Zi’s
descendants eventually adopted the name of the fief as their surname.
- Korean: there are two Chinese characters for the surname Han. However, one of these characters, meaning ‘China’, is extremely rare (only two households with this surname appeared in a recent census), so only the other will be considered here. Some records indicate that there are 131 clans of the Han family, but only one—the Han family of Ch’ongju, can be documented. Some sources name Han Ran as the founding ancestor of the Han family. Han Ran is recognized as one of the men who assisted the first Koryo king, Wang Kon, in setting up the Koryo kingdom in 918. More recent scholarship, however, postulates that the Ch’ongju Han clan’s founding ancestor was U-P’yong, one of three sons of the fortieth generation descendant of Kija, the founder of the ancient Choson kingdom (died 194 bc). The other two sons, U-song and U-Kyong, founded the Ki clan and the Songan clans, respectively.
- French: of uncertain origin. In some cases at least it is from a Breton word meaning ‘summer’ or a topographic name from a place named with Gaulish hafod ‘summer residence’.
- Dutch and Czech (Hán): from a reduced form of the personal name Johann(es) (see John).
- Jewish: variant of Hahn.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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