Chen (surname)

Chen (surname)

Chén or Chan (simplified Chinese: 陈; traditional Chinese: 陳; pinyin: Chén; Wade–Giles: Ch'en) is one of the most common East Asian family names. It ranks as the 5th most common surname in China, as of 2007 and the most common surname in Singapore (2000) and Taiwan (2010). Chen is also the most common family name in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hong Kong (spelt Chan in Hong Kong and Macau). It is the most common surname in Xiamen, the ancestral hometown of many overseas Hoklo. Chen (חֵן) is also a Hebrew word meaning "loveliness" and "grace", which is the 30th-most-common surname in Israel.

It is usually romanised as Chan in Cantonese (most widely used by those from Hong Kong), and sometimes as Chun. In Min (including dialects of Chaozhou (Teochow), Hainan, Fujian, and Taiwan), the name is pronounced Tan. In Hakka and Toisan, the name is spelled and pronounced as Chin. Some other Romanisations include Zen (from Wu), Ding and Chern. Chen can be variously spelt Chan, Chin or Tan in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

The Korean surname 진 (Jin) would be the Korean equivalent of the surname Chen.

In Vietnam, this surname is written in Quốc Ngữ as Trần, and is the second most popular Vietnamese surname, accounting for 11% of the population, after the surname Nguyễn (38.4%).