Khan (surname)

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For the Mongol (raja) Derivation, see Khan (title).
Not to be confused with Kahn.
Palazzo Ducale in Venice: capital # 16 in the porch (counting as # 0 the one at the corner near the Bridge of Sighs): Human races - A Tartar (Mongolian).

Khan (Urdu: خان) is a surname and title of Central and Western Asian origin, primarily found in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Central Asian and South Asian countries.

Use as a title

The surname Khan originates with the honorific khan, originally used in the Mongol Empire, and later more widely by Islamic chieftains in South Asia.[1][2] The British Raj continued the Mughal practice of awarding titles such as Khan Bahadur for Muslims and Rai Bahadur for Hindus.

As a title, khan is now mainly used by the Pashtuns. In the South Asian Subcontinent a Pashtun is addressed as Khan Sahib routinely whether he has Khan formally as part of his name or not. Moreover, the term Khawanain is used to refer to the Khans, collectively, as rulers, chiefs etc. of Khanates in the North West Frontier Province of India, and later Pakistan, particularly in Hangu, Hazara, Swat, Dir, Mardan and other districts in contemporary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the non-Frontier regions of the Subcontinent Khanates did not exist at anytime in history.

Communities using Khan as a surname

The communities that use the surname Khan include the Afghans/Pashtuns, Bengalis, Punjabis, Mughals, Muslim Rajputs,Arains and Turkic people in Central Asia and Northern Pakistan; tribes in Pakistan and their descendents in India, Baloch tribes in Balochistan and in Sindh and various Mongol, Turks, and Tatar tribes in central and northern Asia.

The Pashtuns claim that the title of Khan originated from Kahn (sometimes spelled Cahn), a traditionally Jewish name derived from the Hebrew name Cohen or Kohen or Cohn, denoting priestly/noble lineage.

Other usage

Khan is also a last name found in Tatars, a Muslim Turkic speaking group, mostly in Russia. Also been known to be part with Genghis Khan's army. The name Khan has also been used by the Peoples of the Caucasus since the region has a history of Turkic and Mongolic (Mughal) rulers.

It is now a widespread Islamic surname in most countries of Central and South Asia. Khan is the surname of over 80,000 Islamic Britons, mostly British Asian, making it the 80th most common surname in the United Kingdom, and one of only a handful in the 100 most common surnames which are of neither British nor Irish origin.[3]

List of people called Khan

Political or military leaders

Malik Umar Hayat Khan as an Honorary Lieutenant of the 18th King George's Own Lancers, early 20th century watercolour by Major A.C. Lovett (1862–1919)

Actors and entertainers

Shahrukh Khan, Actor, Producer, Philanthropist and Owner of Kolkata Knight Riders.
Salman Khan, Actor, Philanthropist and Producer.
Aamir Khan, Actor, Producer, Director and Writer.

In sports

Imran Khan, a former Pakistani cricketer, philanthropist and Chairmain of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Amir Khan, a British (Pakistani Origin) who became the WBA Light-welterweight World Champion.

In science and technology

  • Salman "Sal" Khan, an educator, famous for Khan Academy
  • Abdul Qadeer Khan, an engineer from Pakistan, considered the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme
  • Fazlur Khan, Bengali-American structural engineer and designer of Chicago's Sears Tower and John Hancock Center
  • M S Khan (1910–1978), a Bengali academic from Bangladesh, "father of the Library and Information Science discipline in Bangladesh"
  • Geoffrey Khan, (b. 1958), professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Cambridge.

Others

  • Abul Kashem Khan (1905–1991), jurist, political leader, and industrialist from Bangladesh
  • Alan Khan (born 1971), South African radio presenter
  • Amjad Khan (1940–1992), Indian film producer
  • Gauri Khan (born 1971), wife of Indian star Shahrukh Khan
  • Hazrat Inayat Khan, (1882–1927), the founder of Universal Sufism and the Sufi Order International
  • Irene Khan (born 1956), Secretary General of Amnesty International
  • Kiran Rao Khan (born 1973), wife of Indian star Aamir Khan
  • The (unknown) 'M Khan', the subject of many gag routines on The Mary Whitehouse Experience because of long-standing graffiti visible from a major London road[4]
  • Mohammad Sidique Khan (1974–2005), a London train suicide bomber
  • Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan (1833–1901) British-Indian administrator and aristocrat
  • Noor Inayat Khan (1914–1944), a British spy in occupied France
  • Prof. Omer Salim Khan (Omer Tarin), Pakistani poet, writer, scholar and mystic.
  • Peter Khan (born Afghan-Khan), an Australian member of the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith
  • Suzanne Khan Roshan, an Indian interior designer, wife of Hrithik Roshan, daughter of Sanjay Khan, and sister of Zayed Khan
  • Shahid Khan (born c. 1952), Pakistan-born American businessman; owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars
  • Syed Ahmed Khan (1817–1898), an Islamic scholar
  • Tariq Ali Khan (born 1943), well-known British-Pakistani writer, intellectual and Socialist
  • Tasmin Lucia Khan (born 1980), a British Bangladeshi journalist and news presenter for BBC News
  • Ahmed Raza Khan (1856–1921), an Sunni Islamic Scholar of south Asia
  • Vilayat Inayat Khan, (1916–2004), former head of the Sufi Order International
  • Zia Inayat Khan, the Pir of the Sufi Order International

Fictional characters

  • Khan, one of the villains in the Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars computer game
  • Khan, a Chinese-American detective from the Khan! 1975 US television series
  • Khan (comics), Marvel Comics character
  • Jaghatai Khan, the Primarch of the White Scars Space Marines chapter in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe
  • Kamal Khan, the main villain in the James Bond film Octopussy
  • Kamal Khan, Mohammed Khan, two Pashtun characters in Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, The Ballad of East and West.
  • Shere Khan, the tiger, in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, also adapted as a cartoon character in a famous Walt Disney Productions movie in 1967.
  • Manga Khan, a DC Comics character
  • Konstam Khan, a character from Diana Wynne Jones' book "The Homeward Bounders".
  • Rizwan Khan, main character in the 2010 Bollywood film My Name Is Khan
  • Shao Khan, the main antagonist in the Mortal Kombat video game series who is based on a typical Mongolian warlord
  • Shiwan Khan, a recurring enemy of The Shadow.
  • Khan Noonien Singh, a prominent Star Trek villain in an original series episode and the principal antagonist in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, then later Star Trek Into Darkness.
  • Haman Khan, a prominent Gundam villain in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and the principal antagonist in its sequel Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ; and her father Maharaja Khan
  • Nadir Khan, in Susan Kay's retelling of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, "Phantom", is the name given to the character known only as "The Persian" and "Daroga" in the original book.

See also

Look up Khan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ↑ Khan entry in Hobson-Jobson: the Anglo-Indian dictionary
  2. ↑ As cited in The Baburnama, 2002, W.M. Thackston p273.
  3. ↑ "Khan in the UK". Surname.sofeminine.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-09. 
  4. ↑ "Origin of 'M Khan' Graffiti". Everything2.com. 2001-04-12. Retrieved 2012-06-09. 
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