Zhong
钟 · traditionally 鍾 — Zhōng
The 53rd most common surname in China
About 5.33 million people, 0.40% of the population, ranked 54th, most numerous in Guangdong (Yuan Yida and Qiu Jiaru, survey of China's 400 largest surnames, Fuxi Institution, 2013); 53rd most common surname in mainland China in the Ministry of Public Security's 2019 national name report.
Where the name comes from
The main line descends from the Zi (子) clan of Song — the house of Shang Tang, through Song Weizi — one of whose members held the fief of Zhongli (鍾離), near modern Linhuai in Anhui. His descendants first used Zhongli as a two-character surname and later cut it back to the single character 鍾. A second line comes from the Mi (芈) clan of Chu, from the noble Zhong Jian, enfeoffed at the small state of Zhongwu (鍾吾).
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 钟.
- ZhongMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- ChungCantonese and Hakka — Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia
- ChongCantonese
- ChoongHakka — Malaysia
- CheongMalaysia
- ChiongHokkien — the Philippines
- Tjung / TjoengIndonesia (Dutch-based spelling)
- JongKorean (종)
The character
Outside a name, 钟 is an ordinary word meaning clock.
- Strokes
- 9
- Radical
- 钅
- Traditional
- 鍾
- As a word
- zhōng
Words built from 钟
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.