Where the name comes from
Song is what the Zhou left of the Shang. Weizi Qi was installed as Duke of the state of Song; his line traced back to the ancestor Xie (契) and carried the ancestral surname Zi (子). Qi destroyed Song in 286 BC and the citizens of the fallen state took its name as their surname; a smaller, later stream comes from officials of the Song dynasty who adopted the reigning dynasty's name.
The same name, spelled differently
A Chinese surname is a character, not a spelling. The Latin letters on a passport come from whichever dialect the name was written down from — so these are all 宋.
- SongMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- SungCantonese and Hakka
The character
宋 is used almost only as a name — it carries no everyday meaning of its own.
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 宀
- As a word
- sòng