Chang
常 — Cháng
The 100th most common surname in China
"The Ministry of Public Security in 2008 listed it as the 87th most common surname in China based on its database of National Identity Cards, shared by at least 2.4 million Chinese citizens" (English Wikipedia); Chinese Wikipedia gives it as 94th, at about 0.18% of the Han population
Where the name comes from
The orthodox line traces to a cadet branch of the descendants of Kang Shu, younger brother of King Wu of Zhou and founder of the state of Wey; the branch held the fief of Chang, southeast of present-day Tengzhou in Shandong, and took the fief's name as their clan name. A second branch comes from a cadet line of the kings of Wu enfeoffed at a different Chang, around present-day Changzhou in Jiangsu. Chinese sources also name two ministers of the Yellow Emperor, Chang Yi (常仪) and Chang Xian (常先), as ancestors.
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 常.
- ChangMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- Sheung / SoengCantonese
- Seong / SiôngMinnan (Hokkien) communities
- SiohTeochew
The character
Outside a name, 常 is an ordinary word meaning always.
- Strokes
- 11
- Radical
- 巾
- As a word
- cháng
Words built from 常
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.