Dong
董 — Dǒng
The 35th most common surname in China
35th most common surname in mainland China in 2019, shared by 6,770,000 people, or 0.510% of the population (Ministry of Public Security top-100 surname report for 2019).
Where the name comes from
The main line descends from Dong Fu (董父), of the Ji (己) lineage, who was said to understand the habits of dragons. Emperor Shun appointed him Huanlong shi (豢龍氏, "dragon-rearer"), enfeoffed him at Zongchuan and gave him 董 as a surname. A second line is occupational: the second son of the Zhou grandee Xin You served as grand scribe in Jin, where he 董督 (dǒngdū, "superintended") the state's records and chronicles, and his descendants inherited both the office and the 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 董.
- DongMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- TungCantonese — Hong Kong
- TongCantonese — Macau
- Thung / TonMalaysia
- TóngHokkien (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
The character
Outside a name, 董 is an ordinary word meaning to supervise.
- Strokes
- 12
- Radical
- 艹
Words built from 董
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.