Song (Chinese surname)


Song is the pinyin transliteration of the Chinese family name 宋. It is transliterated as Sung in Wade-Giles, and Soong is also a common transliteration. In addition to being a common surname, it is also the name of a Chinese dynasty, the Song dynasty, written with the same character.
In 2019, it was the 24th most common surname in Mainland China.

Historical origin

The first written record of the character 宋 was found on the oracle bones of the Shang dynasty.

State of Song

In the written records of Chinese history, the first time the character Song was used as a surname appeared in the early stage of the Zhou dynasty. One of the children of the last emperor of the Shang dynasty, Weizi Qi, was a duke from the state named Song, who descended from his ancestor Xie whose name was derived from the surname Zi. Xie was born from Jiandi from the swallow from the blackbird egg, who came from Yousong, the legendary state, at north of Mount Buzhou. The State of Song, Song's dominion, became part of the Zhou dynasty after the fall of the Shang dynasty, and was inherited from the dynasty formally in 11th century BC. Citizens of the former State of Song commemorated the overthrow of their state in 286 BC by the State of Qi owned by Tian, who began to use the character Song as their surname, which is the authentic branch.
  • From the Taiping Guangji, The Duke Jing of Song assigned the surname Song to a savage, who was named Ziwei, in charge of astronomy as Fangshi, whose alias was Sixing.

    Song dynasty

  • Emperor Huizong of Song's officer changed his name to Song, using the dynasty name as a family name, which was the imperial clan branch of the Song dynasty.
  • Charlie Soong changed his family name from Han to Soon, then Soong, which was one of the accepted English spellings of the dynasty name Song, the dynasty from the tenth to the thirteenth century in China.

    Others

  • A branch of Miao people located in Guizhou announced that they are descendants of State of Song. Historically called Songjia, known as Chiefdom of Shuidong afterwards, there was a sub-branch that merged in Luodian Kingdom as Yi-speaking people.
  • A clan of Xiqiang people submitted to Northern Wei dynasty during the Northern and Southern dynasties period in the year AD 518 using that surname. Previously, there was a person called Song Jian from Fuhan, who was one of the leaders of Liang Province rebellion who belonged to the Qiang tribes.
  • There is a family clan originally located in Pingyang called Dashila who have used this character since the Ming dynasty.
  • Moreover, the surname branched off into a clan derived from an ancestor named Temuer or Timur with the grant of a seal who used the character since Ming dynasty. From the history records, it may refer to Knight of Fenyang, who is the descendant of Godan Khan.

    Blood type distribution

Population of surname Song's ABO blood type distribution is O blood type 31.3%, B blood type 30.6%, A blood type 28.4% and AB blood type 9.7%.

Variations

A less common Chinese family name, Chóng can also be transliterated to Soong in some Chinese dialects.
The surname Song is also used in Korea.
In Vietnam, the surname is pronounced as Tống.

Notable people

Historical figures