Wang

Wang is a royalty rank and a surname in China and Korea.

This article is about Wang as surnames. See Chinese noble and Korean nobility for royalty rank.

Table of contents

1 Chinese surname 2 Korean surname 3 Prominent people with surname 왕 4 Prominent people with family name 王 5 Prominent people with family name 汪

Chinese surname

Wang (王 in pinyin: Wáng; in penkyamp & Jyutping: Wong4) is the commonest Chinese family name and literally means "king" (See Chinese noble#Wang), although the name itself has no royal implications. The "-ang" sound in pinyin is supposed to be pronounced as in German and so the name is frequently mispronounced by English speakers. The name is also frequently transliterated "Wong" especially for people from Hong Kong or from Guangdong. This other transliteration sounds much more similar to the Chinese pronunciation.

Wang is also the pinyin transliteration of 汪.

It is also is the Cantonese Romanization of some uncommon family names: 橫 (Pinyin: Héng), 弘 (Hóng), 閎 (Hóng), 宏 (Hóng).

Korean surname

Wang is a Korean family name 왕 but very rare in Korea. The Goryeo Dynasty royal family name was Wang. However, after the Goryeo Dynasty fell, the royal Wangs changed their surname to avoid severe persecution from the subsequent Joseon Dynasty.

Prominent people with surname 왕

• The royal family of Goryeo Dynasty

Prominent people with family name 王

• Wang Zhaojun, beauty married to foreigner chief
• Empress Dowager Wang, mother of Emperor Cheng of Han China and aunt of Wang Mang.
• Wang Mang, founder of Xin Dynasty
• Wang Chung, general during the Three Kingdoms
• Wang Pi, Taoist philosopher during the Three Kingdoms
• Wang Yan, stateman and Taoist philosopher during the Western Jin Dynasty.
• Wang Dao, stateman and chief advisor of Emperor Yuan of Jin China
• Wang Dun, ambitious militant of the Eastern Jin Dynasty
• Wang Xizhi, calligrapher during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
• Wang An-shih, politican during the Song Dynasty.
• Wang Fuzhi, philosopher during late Ming Dynasty.
• Wang Shizhen, a Yuan Shikai's Beiyang subordinate commander
• Wang Chien-shien, politician of the Republic of China
• Wong Kar-wai, movie director
• An Wang, computer scientist who founded Wang Laboratories
• Vera Wang, designer
• Faye Wong, singer

Prominent people with family name 汪

• Wang Jingwei, politican of early Republic of China