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The tong Surname

tong Name Meaning and History

  1. Chinese : variant of Tang 2.
  2. Chinese : variant of Tang 3.
  3. Chinese : from a modification of the character Zhong (). In the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc), there existed a senior adviser whose name was Zhonggu. Much later, in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 ad), some descendants settled along a river that became known as the Tong Family river. As the Manchus moved southwards, some took up residence by this river and they too adopted Tong as their surname.
  4. Chinese : from Lao Tong, the ‘style name’ given to a son of Zhuan Xu, legendary emperor of the 26th century bc. Two of his sons became important advisers to the next emperor, Ku. Some descendants of Lao Tong adopted a character from his style name as their surname.
  5. Chinese: see also Dong.
  6. English: metonymic occupational name for a maker or user of tongs (Old English tang(e)), or a habitational name from one of the places named with this word (there are examples in Lancashire, Shropshire, and West Yorkshire), from their situation by a fork in a road or river, considered as resembling a pair of tongs.
  7. English: topographic name for someone who lived on a tongue of land, or a habitational name from a place named with this word (Old English tunge, Old Norse tunga), for example Tonge in Leicestershire. Alternatively, Reaney suggests that it may have been a nickname from the same word in the sense of a chatterbox or a scold.
  8. Dutch: from a short form of the personal name Antonius (see Anthony). It could also be from Dutch tong ‘tongue’ and hence a nickname for a chatterbox or scold, or possibly a shortening of Van Tongeren, a habitational name for someone from Tongeren in the province of Gelderland.

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

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

tong Family Facts

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Distribution of tong Families in the US in 1920
Number of tong families
 93-184
 32-92		 1-31
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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