Thong is a Chinese and Cambodian surname.
Origins
As a
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 ...
, Thong may be a spelling, based on the pronunciation in different
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
, of the following surnames, listed by their spelling in
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
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
pronunciation):
*
Zhāng ()
*
Jiāng ()
*
Tāng (), spelled Thong based on its Cantonese pronunciation (; IPA: )
*
Táng (), spelled Thong based on its
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
pronunciation (; IPA: )
*
Tóng ()
*
Tóng ()
Thong is also a Cambodian surname ( km, ថោង; IPA: ), probably derived from one or more of the above Chinese surnames.
Statistics
According to statistics cited by
Patrick Hanks
Patrick Hanks (born 24 March 1940) is an English lexicographer, corpus linguist, and onomastician. He has edited dictionaries of general language, as well as dictionaries of personal names.
Background
Hanks was educated at Ardingly College, ...
, 106 people on the island of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and none on the island of
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
bore the surname Thong as of 2011. In 1881 there had been two people with this surname in Great Britain.
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 1,378 people with the surname Thong, making it the 19,581st-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 1,156 (21,156th-most-common) in the
2000 Census. In both censuses, about nine-tenths of the 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 ...
, and less than 3% each as
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
or
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
.
It was the 899th-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 Census who identified as Asian.
People
*
Thong Saw Pak (born 1928), Singaporean weightlifter
*
Thong Khon
Thong Khon ( km, ថោង ខុន; born 23 November 1951) is a Cambodian politician. He is a member of the Cambodian People's Party and was elected to represent Kampong Thom Province in the National Assembly in 2003. Thong Khon is the curren ...
(; born 1951), Cambodian politician
*
Shaun Thong
Wei Fung Shaun Thong 唐偉楓 (Born 1 November 1995 in Hong Kong, China) is a racecar driver from Hong Kong.
Born in 1995, He is the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia Silver Cup champion and the 2020 Super Taikyu Series Champion. Thong is the fi ...
(; born 1995), Hong Kong racecar driver
See also
*
Thony (name)
Thony may be a surname, given name or a nickname. As a given name or nickname, it is considered to be a creative spelling of Tony used as a male name in Sweden and Denmark (and to a lesser extent Norway and Finland) and on occasion as a female nam ...
References
{{surname
Chinese-language surnames
Multiple Chinese surnames