Zheng
郑 · traditionally 鄭 — Zhèng
The 21st most common surname in China
Where the name comes from
In 806 BC King Xuan of Zhou enfeoffed his younger brother Prince You — known posthumously as Duke Huan of Zheng — at Zheng, in what is now Hua County, Shaanxi. Duke Huan was killed when the Quanrong sacked the Zhou capital Haojing in 771 BC; his son Duke Wu helped King Ping establish the Eastern Zhou at Luoyang and moved the fief east into present-day Henan. Descendants of the ducal house and people of the state later carried Zheng as their surname.
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 郑.
- ZhengMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- ChengCantonese — Hong Kong and Guangdong
- TayHokkien and Teochew
- TehHokkien and Teochew
- TeeHokkien and Teochew
- TheHokkien and Teochew
- TyHokkien and Teochew
The character
Outside a name, 郑 is an ordinary word meaning state in today's Henan.
- Strokes
- 8
- Radical
- 阝
- Traditional
- 鄭
- As a word
- zhèng
Words built from 郑
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.