Ban (Chinese surname)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ban (班)
PronunciationBan (Mandarin)
Language(s)Chinese
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
MeaningStripes (of a tiger)
Other names
Variant form(s)Pan

Ban is the

Chinese character. It is romanized "Pan" in Wade–Giles. Ban is listed 235th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.[1] It is not among the 300 most common surnames in China.[when?][2] In 2013 it was the 269th most common surname shared by 273,000 people, comprising 0.021% of the total population and the provincial level unit with the most people having the name being Guangxi
.

Origin

The surname Ban originated from

State of Chu of ancient China. Dou Gouwutu (鬬穀於菟; fl. 7th century BC), a grandson of the Chu ruler Ruo'ao, was said to have been abandoned as an infant and nursed by a tigress. His given name Gouwutu, meant nursed (穀 gòu, milk) by a tiger (於菟 wūtú, tiger) in the Chu language. Dou Gouwutu grew up to become a general and the Prime Minister of Chu. His descendants adopted Ban (meaning "stripes", an allusion to tiger's stripes) as their surname.[3]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ "百家姓" [Hundred Family Surnames] (in Chinese). Guoxue. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
  2. ^ 中国最新300大姓排名(2008) [300 most common surnames in China (2008)] (in Chinese). Taiwan.cn. 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
  3. ^ 班姓起源,名人及家谱 [Origin and famous people of the Ban surname] (in Chinese). Shangdu. 2008-07-17. Archived from the original on 2013-07-14. Retrieved 2014-10-14.