Cheon (Korean surname) explained

Cheon
Hangul:	천
Hanja:	or
Rr:	Cheon
Mr:	Ch'ŏn

Cheon, also spelled Chon, is an uncommon Korean surname. It is written with either of two hanja:

• meaning "thousand". This is the more common character, used as a surname by 103,811 people in 32,229 households in South Korea, according to the 2000 census.^[1]
• , meaning "heaven". The 2000 census found 8,416 people in 2,668 households who used this character to write their surname.^[1]

In a study by the National Institute of Korean Language based on 2007 application data for South Korean passports, it was found that 50% of people with this family name spelled it in Latin letters as Cheon in their passports, while 42% spelled it Chun, and 3.5% spelled it Chon. Rarer alternative spellings (the remaining 4.5%) included Choun and the Yale romanization Chen.^[2]

People with this surname include:

Entertainment

• Chun Bo-geun (born 2002), South Korean actor
• Chun Ho-jin (born 1960), South Korean actor
• Chun Jung-myung (born 1980), South Korean actor
• Chun Myung-hoon (born 1978), South Korean singer, rapper, actor
• Chun Soo-yeon (stage name Song Ji-hyo, born 1981), South Korean actress
• Chun Woo-hee (born 1987), South Korean actress

Sportspeople

• Cheon Eun-bi (born 1992), South Korean field hockey player who competed at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics
• Cheon Eun-suk (born 1969), South Korean basketball player
• Cheon Hui-ju (born 1975), South Korean speed skater
• Cheon In-sik (born 1968), South Korean sprint canoer
• Cheon Ju-hyeon (born 1977), South Korean speed skater
• Cheon Min-ho (born 1987), South Korean sport shooter
• Cheon Seong-tae (born 1943), South Korean rower
• Cheon Seul-ki (born 1989), South Korean field hockey player who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Writers

• Cheon Myeong-kwan (born 1964), South Korean novelist
• Cheon Sang-byeong (1930–1993), South Korean poet
• Cheon Un-yeong (born 1971), South Korean writer of short stories
• Cheon Yang-hee (born 1942), South Korean poet

Other

• Cheon Ho-sun (born 1962), South Korean politician
• Cheon Jinwoo (born 1962), South Korean professor of nanomedicine
• Cheon Jun-ho (born 1971), South Korean politician
• Cheon Jung Hee (born 1969), South Korean mathematician
• Mina Cheon (born 1973), South Korean-born American artist
• Taksu Cheon (born 1958), Japanese physicist

See also

• List of Korean family names
• Yeongyang Cheon clan

Notes and References

1. Web site: http://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=101&tblId=DT_1INOOSB&vw_cd=&list_id=&scrId=&seqNo=&lang_mode=ko&obj_var_id=&itm_id=&conn_path=K1&path=#. ko:행정구역(구시군)/성씨·본관별 가구 및 인구. Family names by administrative region (district, city, county): separated by bon-gwan, households and individuals. Korean Statistical Information Service. 31 December 2021.
2. Book: http://korean.go.kr/front/etcData/etcDataView.do?etc_seq=179&mn_id=46. ko:성씨 로마자 표기 방안: 마련을 위한 토론회. Plan for romanisation of surnames: a preparatory discussion. National Institute of the Korean Language. 25 June 2009. 31 December 2021. 61.