Yin
尹 — Yǐn
The 76th most common surname in China
76th of the 100 commonest surnames in mainland China (Ministry of Public Security top-100 report, edition released January 2020 for 2019, as tabulated by English Wikipedia). English Wikipedia's 尹 article gives a 2013 figure of 3,460,000 people, or 0.260% of the population, with Hunan the province of highest concentration.
Where the name comes from
This surname comes from an office rather than a place: 尹 was the title of a senior minister or governor, and the character still carries the sense 'prefectural magistrate'. English Wikipedia records that around 800 BC Bo Jifu, a renowned judge under King Xuan of Zhou, held the post of yin and renamed himself Yin Jifu, and that later magistrates took the title as a surname to mark their rank and standing.
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 尹.
- YinMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- WanCantonese — Hong Kong; e.g. the singer Wan Kwong (尹光)
The character
Outside a name, 尹 is an ordinary word meaning to govern, to oversee; director.
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 尸
- As a word
- yǐn