Xiong (surname)

Xiong

Xiong surname in regular script
Pronunciation Xióng (Pinyin)
Hîm, Hiông (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Language(s) Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Hmong
Origin
Language(s) Old Chinese
Derivation Zhuanxu (顓頊)
Jilian (季連)
Meaning Bear
Other names
Variant(s) Xiong, Hsiung (Mandarin)
Hung, Hong (Cantonese)
Him (Hokkien)
Hong, Yoong (Hakka)
Hiōng (Gan)
Ung (Korean)
Hùng (Vietnamese)
Cognate(s) Mi (surname) (芈)
Zhao (surname) (赵)
See also Zhurong (祝融)

Xiong[nb 1] is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 熊 (Xióng).

Romanizations

熊 is also romanized as Hsiung2 in Wade-Giles. It is Hung or Hong in Cantonese; Him in Hokkien, Hong or Yoong in Hakka; Hiōng in Gan; Hùng in Vietnamese; and Xyooj in Hmong.

Note that "Hong" and "Hung" may also refer to the unrelated surname .

Distribution

熊 is the 71st most common surname in mainland China, but does not appear at all among the 100 most common Taiwanese surnames.

Although Chinese make up the largest part of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population,[2] none of the romanizations of 熊 appeared among the 1000 most common surnames during the AD 2000 US census.[3]

Origins

Xiong's literal meaning is "bear", Xiong (熊) is surname from Zhuanxu, branch to Mi (surname) (芈) of Chu (state).

Xiong traces back to the legendary Chinese culture hero Fuxi, who was also styled "Huangxiong" (, lit. "Yellow Bear"). One archaic form of the surname combined this into a single character 𪏛.[4]

Zhuanxu (顓頊) the Gaoyang (高陽)'s grandson Jilian (季連) took the ancestral name Mi (芈, '). His descendant Yuxiong was the tutor of King Wen of Zhou and died during his reign.

After Zhou overthrew the Shang Dynasty, Yuxiong's descendants took Xiong as their clan name and remained prominent at court.

King Wen's grandson King Cheng of Zhou (reigned 1042  1021 BC) awarded Yuxiong's great-grandson Xiong Yi the hereditary title of (, roughly "viscount") and the fiefdom of Chu.[5] As it grew in power and importance, the Xiong dynasty formed its ruling house and the ruling houses of some of its successor states. To this day, the surname remains prominent in the provinces comprising the former territory of Chu.

The surname of Xiong (熊)

List of persons with the surname

Song

  • Brenda Song (changed from Brenda Xiong), Hmong actress

Xiong

  • Xiong Ming Hua, Chinese businessman

Hsiung

Hung

Yoong

Irene Yoong-Henery, entrepreneur Andrew Yoong, Deputy Director HDB Singapore, Structural Engineer

See also

Notes

  1. The approximate pronunciation in English is /ˈʃjŋ/.[1]

References

  1. "Pronunciation of Xiong". Pronounce Names. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  2. United States Census Bureau. "Census 2000: Chinese Largest Asian Group in the United States". 4 Mar 2002. Accessed 29 Mar 2012.
  3. United States Census Bureau. "Genealogy Data: Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000". 27 Sept 2011. Accessed 29 Mar 2012.
  4. Requires archaic Chinese font support. Note the lack of the fire radical on the right.
  5. Sima Qian. "楚世家 (House of Chu)". Records of the Grand Historian (in Chinese). Retrieved 3 December 2011.
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