Shen
沈 — Shěn
The 52nd most common surname in China
About 5.5 million people, 0.41% of the population, ranked 49th, with more Shěn in Jiangsu than in any other province (Yuan Yida and Qiu Jiaru, survey of China's 400 largest surnames, Fuxi Institution, 2013); 52nd most common surname in mainland China in the Ministry of Public Security's 2019 national name report.
Where the name comes from
Traced to the state of Shen (沈) in Runan, Henan, whose people were reckoned descendants of Shao Hao; the state was later revived when King Cheng of Zhou enfeoffed the Zhou prince Ran Ji there, and its rulers and vassals carried the name onward. A separate line runs through the Mi (芈) royal clan of Chu in the Spring and Autumn period, by way of the Chu field marshal Shenyin Shu.
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 沈.
- ShenMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- ShumCantonese — Hong Kong (government romanisation)
- SumCantonese — Hong Kong
- ShamCantonese — Hong Kong
- SimHokkien and Teochew — Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia
- ShimHakka; and Korean (심)
- Thẩm / TrầmSino-Vietnamese — Vietnam
The character
Outside a name, 沈 is an ordinary word meaning to sink, to submerge; addicted.
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 氵
- As a word
- chén