Wang
王 — Wáng
The 1st most common surname in China
Over 100 million people in China, in the Ministry of Public Security's report on the 2018 registered population (China Daily, 31 January 2019); an earlier count in China's National Citizen ID Information System gave 92.88 million bearers, 7.25% of the general population (April 2007). It was still ranked first in the MPS 2019 National Name Report (CGTN, 21 January 2020).
Where the name comes from
The character means "king", and the surname belongs mostly to royal families who lost their thrones and were afterwards known simply as "the king's household". The largest branch descends from the Zhou royal house of Ji (姬): after Prince Qiao (Wangzi Qiao), a son of King Ling of Zhou, was reduced to commoner status, his son Zong Jin's family was still recognised as royal descendants and so was called the Wang family. A second line descends from Bi Gan, the Shang prince killed for remonstrating with the king, and further branches were adopted by non-Han peoples such as the Xianbei under the Northern Wei.
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 王.
- WangMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- WongCantonese and Hakka — Hong Kong, Macau
- OngHokkien
- UngHokkien (variant spelling)
- HengTeochew
- WungShanghainese (Wu)
The character
Outside a name, 王 is an ordinary word meaning king or monarch.
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 王
- As a word
- wáng
Words built from 王
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.
Other surnames read “Wang”
Romanised the same way, but a different character and a different family.