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 Sinicized ethnic groups in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the ...

s, based on their pronunciation in different varieties of Chinese; they are listed below by their spelling in

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

, which reflects the

standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...

pronunciation: #Sēng (), a surname found primarily in Henan. The word itself originated from the Sanskrit '' sangha'' 'association', and in Chinese most commonly means '' bhikkhu'' ' Buddhist monk'. In some cases it may have originated as an occupational surname, in others as a transcription into Chinese characters 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 evolu ...

. # 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 Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ( ...

dialects (e.g. Hokkien ; Teochew Peng'im: ) # 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: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan and Overseas Chinese su ...

pronunciation ( Hainanese Transliteration Scheme: ). This spelling is found for example in Singapore. #

Shěn Shěn is the Mandarin Hanyu pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname . Shen is the 14th surname in the Song-era ''Hundred Family Surnames''. Romanisation 沈 is romanised as Sum, Sem, Sam, or Shum in Cantonese; Sim in Hokkien; Shim in Hakka; ...

() # Zhuāng (/) The Cambodian surname Seng () probably originates from the Southern Min pronunciations of Chéng or Shéng. The German surname Seng in most cases originated as a toponymic surname for a person who lived on land which had been cleared by fire, from Middle High German 'to singe'. In some cases it originated as an occupational surname for a farmer, from MHG 'ready to cut (of grain)', or as a patronymic from the hypocorism Seng (whose origin is unclear). Though there is a village by the name Seng in Altötting district in far southeastern Bavaria, 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, Seng is the spelling, in the relatively rare Yale romanization of Korean, of the surname spelled in the much-more-common

Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Min ...

Seong Seong, also spelled Song or Sung, is an uncommon Korean family name, a single-syllable Korean given name, as well as a common element in two-syllable Korean given names. The meaning differs based on the hanja used to write it. Family name The fa ...

(). It can be written with either of two hanja: ( '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 ( ko, 대한민국 여권, Daehan Minguk yeogwon), commonly referred to as the South Korean passport, is issued to a South Korean citizen to facilitate their international travel. Like any other passport, South Ko ...

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 The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

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 Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

(up from 46% in 2000), and 38% as

non-Hispanic white Non-Hispanic whites or Non-Latino whites are Americans who are classified as "white", and are not of Hispanic (also known as "Latino") heritage. The United States Census Bureau defines ''white'' to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Amer ...

(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 Shen Zurong (; 1884–1977), also known as Samuel T. Y. Seng, is considered the "Father of Library Science in China". A native of Yichang, he was the first professional librarian in China and a main contributor to the New Library Movement in Chin ...

(; 1884–1977), Chinese librarian *

Willi Seng Willi Seng (11 February 1909 – 27 July 1944) was a German communist activist who became a resistance fighter during the Nazi period. He was captured in 1943 and faced trial in 1944, following which he was convicted and two months later executed. ...

(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 (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 GR ...

(; born 1950), Singaporean politician *

Theary Seng Theary Chan Seng (born 1971) is a Cambodian-American human-rights activist and lawyer, the former executive director of the Centre for Social Development, and president of the Center for Cambodian Civic Education (CIVICUS Cambodia). She is the au ...

(born 1971), Cambodian-born American human-rights activist and lawyer *

James Seng Seng Ching Hong (commonly referred to as James Seng) () is one of the Internet pioneers in Singapore and is recognized as an international expert in the Internet arena. He gave regular speeches at various forums on several Internet issues such as ...

(; ), 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