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

Origins

Seng may be the spelling of multiple

Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicization, Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, ...

s, based on their pronunciation in different

varieties of Chinese There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...

; they are listed below by their spelling in

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

, which reflects the

standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...

pronunciation: #Sēng (), a surname found primarily in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

. The word itself originated from the Sanskrit ''

sangha Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ...

'' 'association', and in Chinese most commonly means ''

bhikkhu A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the pratimok� ...

'' ' Buddhist monk'. In some cases it may have originated as an

occupational surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

, in others as a

transcription into Chinese characters Transcription into Chinese characters is the use of traditional or simplified Chinese characters to '' phonetically'' transcribe the sound of terms and names of foreign words to the Chinese language. Transcription is distinct from translatio ...

of a

Mongolian name Mongolian names have undergone a number of changes in the history of Mongolia, both with regard to their meaning and their source languages. In Inner Mongolia, naming customs are now similar to Mongolia but with some differences. Historical evol ...

. # Chéng (), spelled Seng based on its pronunciation in various

Southern Min Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...

dialects (e.g.

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

; Teochew

Peng'im ( zh, s=潮州话拼音方案, t=潮州話拼音方案: ( Teochew) ( Swatow), : or , : or ) is a Teochew dialect romanization system as a part of Guangdong Romanization published by Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960. The ...

: ) # Shéng (), homophonous or nearly-homophonous with the above surname in most Southern Min dialects (e.g. Hokkien ; Teochew Peng'im: ) # Chén (/), spelled Seng based on its

Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ''Hái-nâm-oe'', Hainanese Pinyin: ''Hhai3 nam2 ue1'', ), also known as Qiongwen (), Qiongyu () or Hainan Min () is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hain ...

pronunciation (

Hainanese Transliteration Scheme The Hainanese Transliteration Scheme () is a romanization scheme developed by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in September 1960 as one of four systems collectively referred to as Guangdong Romanization. The scheme describes the Wench ...

: ). This spelling is found for example in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. #

Shěn Shěn is the Mandarin Hanyu pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the Chinese surname . Shen is the 14th surname in the Song dynasty, Song-era ''Hundred Family Surnames'' also colloquially known as the "common Chinese person" in text & ...

() # Zhuāng (/) The Cambodian surname Seng () probably originates from the Southern Min pronunciations of Chéng or Shéng. The

German surname Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (''Vorname'', plural ''Vornamen'') and a surname (''Nachname, Familienname''). The ''Vorname'' is usually gender-specific. A name is usually cited in the "Name order, ...

Seng in most cases originated as a

toponymic surname A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,

for a person who lived on land which had been cleared by fire, from

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...

'to singe'. In some cases it originated as an

for a farmer, from MHG 'ready to cut (of grain)', or as a

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

from the

hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also ''hypocoristic''), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for Isabel or ''Bob (given name), Bob'' fo ...

Seng (whose origin is unclear). Though there is a village by the name Seng in Altötting district in far southeastern

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, 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. As a

Korean surname This is a list of Korean surnames, in Hangul alphabetical order. The most common Korean surname (particularly in South Korea) is Kim (Korean name), Kim (), followed by Lee (Korean name), Lee () and Park (Korean surname), Park (). These three sur ...

, Seng is the spelling, in the relatively rare

Yale romanization of Korean The Yale romanization of Korean was developed by Samuel Elmo Martin and his colleagues at Yale University about half a decade after McCune–Reischauer. It is the standard romanization of the Korean language in linguistics. The Yale system pla ...

, of the surname spelled in the much-more-common

Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...

Seong Seong (), also spelled Song or Sung, is an uncommon Korean family name. Overview The family name Seong is written with only one hanja character, meaning "succeed" or "accomplish" (). The 2000 South Korean Census found 167,903 people with this f ...

(). It can be written with either of two

hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...

: ( 'to accomplish'; same character as for the second Chinese surname listed above), and ( 'star').

Statistics

There were 720 people in Germany with the surname Seng, making it the 4,824th-most-common surname. 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 . This surname is only rarely spelled as Seng; in a study based on year 2007 applications for

South Korean passport The Republic of Korea passport (), commonly referred to as the South Korean passport, are travel documents issued to a South Korean citizen to facilitate their international travel. Like any other passport, South Korean passports serve as proof ...

s, 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. 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 Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

(down from 45% in 2000). It was the 563rd-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 census who identified as Asian.

People

* Samuel T. Y. Seng (; 1884–1977), Chinese librarian * Willi Seng (1909–1944), German communist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter * Seng Liang (; 1913–?), Chinese weightlifter * Colleen Seng (born 1936), American local politician in Lincoln, Nebraska *

Joe Seng Joe M. Seng (September 27, 1946 – September 16, 2016) was the Iowa State Senator from the 45th District. A Democrat, he served in the Iowa Senate from 2003 until 2016. He received a DVM from Iowa State University and worked as a veterinarian in ...

(1946–2016), American local politician in Iowa *

Seng Han Thong Seng Han Thong ( zh, s=成汉通, p=Chéng Hàntōng; born 22 April 1950) is a Singaporean former politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was a Member of Parliament representing the Yio Chu Kang ward of Ang Mo Kio ...

(; born 1950), Singaporean politician * Theary Seng (born 1971), Cambodian-born American human-rights activist and lawyer * James Seng (; ), Singaporean Internet businessman * Seng Sothea (; born 1984), Cambodian chef * Jarrad Seng (born 1988), Australian photographer and filmmaker

References

{{surname Surnames of Cambodian origin German-language surnames Hokkien-language surnames Korean-language surnames Multiple Chinese surnames