Tang
唐 — Táng
The 25th most common surname in China
9,170,000 people, or 0.690% of the population, in a 2013 study — the most in Hunan — ranking 25th; still 25th among mainland China's most common surnames on 2019–2020 data (English Wikipedia).
Where the name comes from
Two roots, both in Shanxi. The older is Emperor Yao, whose clan name was Tao-Tang (陶唐氏) — tao for pottery, Tang for an ancient place in central Shanxi — which is why Yao is also called Tang Yao. The second is the fief of Tang that King Cheng of Zhou granted his younger brother Shuyu, who went on to become the first ruler of Jin; his descendants kept the name. Many native peoples of southern China later took the surname from Chinese settlers.
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 唐.
- TangMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- TongCantonese — Hong Kong and Macau
- Tn̂g / Tông / ThângHokkien
The character
Outside a name, 唐 is an ordinary word meaning to exaggerate.
- Strokes
- 10
- Radical
- 口
- As a word
- táng
Words built from 唐
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.