Wong (surname)

Wong is the Jyutping, Yale and Hong Kong romanization of the Chinese surnames Huang (traditional Chinese: 黃; simplified Chinese: 黄) and Wang (Chinese: 王), two ubiquitous Chinese surnames; Wang (Chinese: 汪), another common Chinese surname; and a host of other rare Chinese surnames, including Heng (traditional Chinese: 橫; simplified Chinese: 横), Hong (Chinese: 弘), Hong (traditional Chinese: 閎; simplified Chinese: 闳), and Hong (Chinese: 宏)

For other uses, see Wong (disambiguation).
Wong
Origin
Word/nameChina
Region of originChina, Bianjing, Hainan and Hong Kong
Other names
Variant form(s)Vong, Huang, Wang, Heng

Note that, while 汪 (Wang) could be distinguished by its tone, 黃 (Wong/Huang) and 王 (Wong/Wang) are homophones in Cantonese. To differentiate the two in conversation, 黃 (Wong/Huang) is customarily referred to by native Cantonese speakers as 黃河的黃 (Yellow River Wong), 黃金的黃 (yellow gold Wong), 大肚黃(big belly Wong, also "fat man" Wong), as the character resembles a person with a big belly, or by native Mandarin speakers as "grass-head Wong" (due to its first radical), whereas the 王 (Wong/Wang) is referred as the three-stroke Wong" (due to its prominent 3 horizontal strokes) or the 'King' Wong (due to its meaning).

Distribution
See also: Wang (surname) and Huang (surname)

In Taiwan, names are written using Chinese characters and are currently romanized using the Hanyu Pinyin but previously Wade-Giles was used and many people retain names as such. In Hong Kong and Macau and among the Chinese diaspora abroad, though, many choose to romanize their name according to their regional pronunciation.

Thus, while there is no official tally of "Wongs" inside China or Taiwan, Wong is the 6th most common Chinese name in Singapore, the 3rd most common Chinese name in America, and the most common Chinese name in Ontario, Canada.

Although recent immigration from central and northern China has caused the pinyin romanizations "Wang" and "Huang" to become more common, "Wong" is still by far the most common version in all three locations, just as "Lee" remains more common than "Li".

Origins
Main articles: Vong (surname), Huang (surname), and Wang (surname)

The history of the romanization "Wong" begins Bianjing (汴京) during the Song dynasty (a noticeable empress Empress Wang (Taizu). Some historical information showed that the name can be traced back to 206 BC–220 AD Han dynasty.

The romanisation "Wong" is also linked with mainland Chinese "Wang (surname)" which has a historical name from Zi in Shang dynasty .

The name is widely used in Hong Kong and some of the Commonwealth countries. Many migrants moved to parts of south-east Asia, Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States.

Wong is also a rare English surname derived from Old English "Geong" meaning young. However, Young is the more common surname from this origin.

List of people with the surname

黃/黄

王

汪
Further information: Wāng
  • Wayne Wong (born 1981), tennis player from Hong Kong
  • Wayne Wong (skier) (born 1950), Canadian freestyle skier, Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame
  • Wong Yue (1955-2008), Hong Kong martial arts actor and Shaw Brothers alumnus, also known as Wang Yu in Mandarin for being a lookalike for another ex-Shaw actor Jimmy Wang Yu

翁
Further information: Weng (surname)

Pinyin: wēng, wěng (weng1, weng3); Jyutping: jung1; Min Nan POJ: ang

Other

Others

See also
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