Chen (surname)


Chen is a common East Asian surname. It is the most common surname in Taiwan and Singapore. Chen is also the most common family name in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Macau, and Hong Kong. It is the most common surname in Xiamen, the ancestral hometown of many overseas Hoklo.
In Cantonese, it is usually romanized as Chan, most widely used by those from Hong Kong. Chan is also widely used in Macao and Malaysia. It is also sometimes spelled Chun. In many Southern Min dialects, the name is pronounced Tan, while in Teochew, it is pronounced Tang. In Hakka and Taishanese, the name is spelled Chin. In Wu it is pronounced Zen.
In Vietnam, this surname is written as Trần and is 2nd most popular. In Thailand, this surname is the most common surname of Thai Chinese and is often pronounced according to Teochew dialect as Tang. In Cambodia, this surname is transliterated as Taing. In Japanese, the surname is transliterated Chin. In Korean it is transliterated Jin.
Chen is 5th most common in mainland China, but 4th most common in the world due to Chen's larger overseas population. With all its various spellings and pronunciations, there are around 80-100 million people surnamed 陳 / 陈 worldwide.
Chen was listed 10th in the Hundred Family Surnames poem, in the verse 馮陳褚衛.
The surname Cheng is sometimes romanized as Chen. Another less common Chinese surname / can also be romanized as Chen.

Character

The Chinese character 陳 / 陈 means 'to describe' or 'ancient'. It is a combination of the radical 阝and the character 東 / 东 which means 'East'.

History

Chen descends from the legendary sage king Emperor Shun from around 2200 BC via the surname Gui.
A millennia after Emperor Shun, when King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou dynasty, he enfeoffed his son-in-law Gui Man, also known as Duke Hu of Chen or Chen Hugong. Chen Hugong, a descendant of Emperor Shun, found the State of Chen in modern Huaiyang County, Henan Province. In 479 BC, Chen was absorbed by Chu and became the Chu capital. The people of Chen adopted the name of their former state as their surname.
At the end of the Qin dynasty, Chen Sheng initiated the Chen Sheng Wu Guang Uprising that overthrew the Qin and paved the way for the Han dynasty, one of China's golden ages.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, Chen Baxian established the Chen Dynasty, the fourth and the last of the Southern dynasties, which was eventually absorbed by the Sui Dynasty.
During this period, the nomadic Xianbei people had systematically assimilated into China's agrarian culture and adopted Han Chinese surnames under the state directives of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei. The Xianbei subjects whose surname of "侯莫陳" were converted to "陳".
Some descendants of Chen migrated to Vietnam and established the Tran dynasty, a golden age in Vietnam. Their original home was Fujian, and they migrated under Trần Kinh. Trần Thái Tông became the founding emperor of the Tran dynasty, and his descendants would rule Vietnam for more than a century, expanding Vietnam's territory and promoting developments in language, chu nom, culture, and art. Certain members of the clan could still speak Chinese, like when a Yuan dynasty envoy had a meeting with the Chinese-speaking Tran Prince Trần Quốc Tuấn in 1282.
During the Yuan-Ming transition, Chen Youliang founded the Chen Han dynasty, which helped overthrow Yuan rule and pave the way for the Ming dynasty, another Chinese golden age.
In the 20th century, Chen Duxiu cofounded the Chinese Communist Party and became its first general secretary.

Distribution

Chen is the 5th most common surname in mainland China and 4th most common in the world.
A 2013 study found that it was the 5th most common surname, shared by 61,300,000 people or 4.610% of the population, with the province with the most being Guangdong.
According to 2018 census, it was 5th most common mainland China there around 63 million, but is the 4th most common surname in the world with 80-100 million people. It is the most popular Chinese surname overseas.
In 2019 Chen was again the fifth most common surname in Mainland China. It is the most common surname in the southern provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong.

Other pronunciations and transliterations

Historical figures

;Dynasties and States
Note: this list is ordered by given name commonly used in English, regardless of spelling of surname and name order.