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Wong (surname)

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Wong
Origin
Word/nameChina
Region of originChina, Bianjing, Hainan and Hong Kong, Macau
Other names
Variant form(s)Wung, Vong, Huang, Wang, Heng

Wong is the Jyutping, Yale and Hong Kong romanization of the Chinese surnames Huang (traditional Chinese: 黃; simplified Chinese: 黄) and Wang (Chinese: 王), two ubiquitous Chinese surnames; Wang (Chinese: 汪), another common Chinese surname; and a host of other rare Chinese surnames, including Heng (traditional Chinese: 橫; simplified Chinese: 横), Hong (Chinese: 弘), Hong (traditional Chinese: 閎; simplified Chinese: 闳), and Hong (Chinese: 宏)

Note that, while 汪 (Wang/Wung) could be distinguished by its tone, 黃 (Wong/Huang) and 王 (Wong/Wang) are homophones in Cantonese. To differentiate the two in conversation, 黃 (Wong/Huang) is customarily referred to by native Cantonese speakers as 黃色嘅黃 (Wong as in yellow), 黃河嘅黃 (Yellow River Wong), 黃金嘅黃 (yellow gold Wong), 大肚黃 (big belly Wong, as the character resembles a person with a big belly), or by native Mandarin speakers as "grass-head Wong" (due to its first radical), whereas 王 (Wong/Wang) is referred as the 三劃王 "three-stroke Wong" (due to its prominent 3 horizontal strokes) or the 'King' Wong (due to its meaning).

Distribution

See also: Wang (surname) and Huang (surname)

In Taiwan, names are written using Chinese characters and are currently romanized using the Hanyu Pinyin but previously Wade-Giles was used and many people retain names as such. In Hong Kong and Macau and among the Chinese diaspora abroad, though, many choose to romanize their name according to their regional pronunciation.

Thus, while there is no official tally of "Wongs" inside China or Taiwan, Wong is the 6th most common Chinese name in Singapore, the 3rd most common Chinese name in America, and the most common Chinese name in Ontario, Canada.

Although recent immigration from central and northern China has caused the pinyin romanizations "Wang" and "Huang" to become more common, "Wong" is still by far the most common version in all three locations, just as "Lee" remains more common than "Li".

Origins

Main articles: Vong (surname), Huang (surname), and Wang (surname)

The history of the romanization "Wong" begins in Bianjing (汴京) during the Song dynasty (a noticeable empress Empress Wang (Taizu). Some historical information showed that the name can be traced back to 206 BC–220 AD Han dynasty.

The romanisation "Wong" is also linked with mainland Chinese "Wang (surname)" which has a historical name from Zi in Shang dynasty .

The name is widely used in Hong Kong and some of the Commonwealth countries. Many migrants moved to parts of south-east Asia, Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States.

Wong is also a rare English surname derived from Old English "Geong" meaning young. However, Young is the more common surname from this origin.

People with the surname

黃/黄

王

汪

Further information: Wāng

翁

Further information: Weng (surname)

Other

Others

Fictional characters with the surname

See also

References

Surname listThis page lists people with the surname Wong.
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