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The han Surname

han Name Meaning and History

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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’.
  4. Dutch and Czech (Hán): from a reduced form of the personal name Johann(es) (see John).
  5. Jewish: variant of Hahn.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The han name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the han family name as far back in history as possible.

han Family Facts

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Distribution of han Families in the US in 1920
Number of han families
 22-42
 8-21		 1-7
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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Han message board


Threads: 17 - Messages: 39
ThreadAuthorReplies
Han Family Dennis Han 14
Information on husbands family tna6974 0
Han, Jessie - Jersey City, NJ Marcelle1207 0
Last name Han is oriental not english! Matthew Han 6
James F. Han, c1825 in VA Cheryl Kemp 2
Looking for HAN Cheng Fong Eric 0
GEORGE W. HAN, Ada Co., Idaho crmabee 0
HAN gravestones found in Oak Grove Memorial Cemetery in Irving, Dallas County, Texas Allen Wheatley 0
HAN_Kan_Ran_1905-1999.JPG AllenWheatley99 0
Finding Miss Kim Charles 0
Viewing 1-10 of 17 |  Go to the full board

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