Seng Explained

Seng
Language:Chinese, German, Korean

Seng is a Cambodian, Chinese, German, and Korean surname.

Origins

Seng may be the spelling of multiple Chinese surnames, based on their pronunciation in different varieties of Chinese; they are listed below by their spelling in Hanyu Pinyin, which reflects the standard Mandarin pronunciation:

  1. Sēng, a surname found primarily in Henan. The word itself originated from the Sanskrit sangha 'association', and in Chinese most commonly means bhikkhu 'Buddhist monk'. In some cases it may have originated as an occupational surname, in others as a transcription into Chinese characters of a Mongolian name.[1] [2]
  2. Chéng, spelled Seng based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects (e.g. Hokkien ; Teochew Peng'im:)[3] [4]
  3. Shéng, homophonous or nearly-homophonous with the above surname in most Southern Min dialects (e.g. Hokkien ; Teochew Peng'im:)[5]
  4. Chén (/Chinese: 陈), spelled Seng based on its Hainanese pronunciation (Hainanese Transliteration Scheme:). This spelling is found for example in Singapore.[6] [7]
  5. Shěn
  6. Zhuāng (/Chinese: 庄)

The Cambodian surname Seng (Central Khmer: សេង) probably originates from the Southern Min pronunciations of Chéng or Shéng.

The German surname Seng in most cases originated as a toponymic surname for a person who lived on land which had been cleared by fire, from Middle High German 'to singe'.[8] [9] In some cases it originated as an occupational surname for a farmer, from MHG 'ready to cut (of grain)', or as a patronymic from the hypocorism Seng (whose origin is unclear). Though there is a village by the name Seng in Altötting district in far southeastern Bavaria, the distribution of the surname within Germany (largely concentrated in northwestern Bavaria and neighbouring states) appears to rule out the earlier theory that the surname was related to that village.[9]

As a Korean surname, Seng is the spelling, in the relatively rare Yale romanization of Korean, of the surname spelled in the much-more-common Revised Romanization of Korean as Seong . It can be written with either of two hanja: (Korean: [[wikt:이루다|이룰]] 成 'to accomplish'; same character as for the second Chinese surname listed above), and (Korean: 별 星 'star').[10] [11]

Statistics

There were 720 people in Germany with the surname Seng, making it the 4,824th-most-common surname.[9]

The 2000 South Korean census found 184,555 people in 57,248 households with the surname, and 808 people in 265 households with the surname .[11] This surname is only rarely spelled as Seng; in a study based on year 2007 applications for South Korean passports, among the 292 applicants with this surname in the sample, only one chose to spell it as Seng, as compared to 197 applicants who spelled it as Sung, and 86 as Seong.[10]

The 2010 United States census found 4,563 people with the surname Seng, making it the 7,311th-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 3,588 (8,457th-most-common) in the 2000 census. In the 2010 census, about 55% of bearers of the surname identified as Asian (up from 46% in 2000), and 38% as non-Hispanic white (down from 45% in 2000).[12] It was the 563rd-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 census who identified as Asian.[13]

People

Notes and References

  1. News: 僧姓起源与僧人有关 尼姓人可能是孔子后裔 . . 17 June 2014 . 22 March 2023.
  2. News: 中国有个姓氏，人口不到10万，祖先与和尚有关，如今只分布河南 . . 30 September 2019 . 22 March 2023.
  3. Book: Medhurst, Walter Henry. A dictionary of the Hok-këèn dialect of the Chinese language, according to the reading and colloquial idioms. Walter Henry Medhurst. East India Company Press. 1832. 590.
  4. Book: Fielde, Adele M.. https://archive.org/details/pronouncingdefin00fielrich/page/470. Adele M. Fielde. 應. A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones. Shanghai. American Presbyterian Mission Press. 1883. 470. none. . Additionally see Web site: 成. mogher.com. 22 March 2023.
  5. . Additionally see Web site: 盛. mogher.com. 22 March 2023.
  6. Book: https://books.google.com/books?id=AyNYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA248 . 罗健名 . 新加坡华人姓氏平写法研究 . 罗福腾 . zh:《新加坡华语应用研究新进展》 . Global Publishing . 2012 . 9789813205970 . 244, 248.
  7. Book: 梁猷刚 . zh:《海南音字典（普通话对照）》 . 华南师范大学中文系《方音字典》 . 广东人民出版社 . 7218001955 . 1988 . 75. The Hainanese Transliteration Scheme is based on the prestige Wenchang dialect, whereas the spelling "Seng" may have come from the pronunciation in some other dialect.
  8. Book: Dictionary of American Family Names. Patrick. Hanks. Patrick Hanks. Oxford University Press. 2003. 9780199771691. 3. 321.
  9. Book: http://www.namenforschung.net/id/name/4824/1 . Seng . Digitales Familiennamenwörterbuch Deutschlands . Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur . Mainz . 11 January 2023.
  10. Book: http://korean.go.kr/front/etcData/etcDataView.do?etc_seq=179&mn_id=46. ko:씨 로마자 표기 방안: 마련을 위한 토론회. Plan for romanisation of surnames: a preparatory discussion. National Institute of the Korean Language. 25 June 2009. 22 March 2023. 59.
  11. Web site: 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. 22 March 2023.
  12. Web site: How common is your last name?. Newsday. 5 September 2018.
  13. Web site: Most common last names for Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S.. Mongabay. 8 January 2018.

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