Fan
范 · traditionally 範 — Fàn
The 58th most common surname in China
About 4.85 million people, 0.36% of the population, ranked 59th, most numerous in Henan (Yuan Yida and Qiu Jiaru, survey of China's 400 largest surnames, Fuxi Institution, 2013); 58th most common surname in mainland China in the Ministry of Public Security's 2019 national name report.
Where the name comes from
The clan traces itself to Emperor Yao by way of Liu Lei and the Tang-Du lineage, which fled to the state of Jin after King Xuan of Zhou destroyed Du. Its founder as a surname is Shi Hui (士會, posthumously Fan Wuzi), a Jin minister granted the fief of Fan — modern Fan County in Henan — whose descendants took the place name as their own. The clan's traditional ancestral seat is Gaoping commandery.
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 范.
- FanMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- HuangHokkien / Min Nan
- Hoan / HwanHokkien / Min Nan
- FamHakka
- PhạmSino-Vietnamese — Vietnam, where it is one of the most common surnames
- BeomKorean (범)
- Ve / VaeWu — Shanghai region
The character
Outside a name, 范 is an ordinary word meaning pattern.
- Strokes
- 8
- Radical
- 艹
- Traditional
- 範
- As a word
- fàn
Words built from 范
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.