Xiong (surname)

Xiong is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 熊 (Xióng). It is 41st in the Hundred Family Surnames, contained in the verse 熊紀舒屈 (Xiong, Ji, Shu, Qu).

Xiong
Xiong surname in regular script
PronunciationXióng (Pinyin)
Hîm, Hiông (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Language(s)Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Hmong
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
DerivationJilian
Meaning"bear"
Other names
Variant form(s)Xiong, Hsiung (Mandarin)
Xyooj (Hmong)
Hung, Hong (Cantonese)
Him (Hokkien)
Hong, Yoong (Hakka)
Hiōng (Gan)
Ung (Korean)
Hùng (Vietnamese)
Cognate(s)Mi (surname) (芈)
See alsoZhurong (祝融)

Romanizations

熊 is also romanized as Hsiung2 in Wade-Giles. It is Hung or Hong in Cantonese; Him in Hokkien, Hong or Yoong in Hakka; Hiōng in Gan; Hùng in Vietnamese; and Xyooj in Hmong.

Note that "Hong" and "Hung" may also refer to the unrelated surname 洪.

Distribution

熊 is the 71st most common surname in mainland China.

Although Chinese make up the largest part of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population,[1] none of the romanizations of 熊 appeared among the 1000 most common surnames during the AD 2000 US census.[2]

Origins

Xiong's literal meaning is "bear", Xiong (熊) is branch to Mi (surname) (芈) of Chu (state).

Xiong traces back to the legendary Chinese culture hero Fuxi, who was also styled "Huangxiong" (黄熊, lit. "Yellow Bear"). One archaic form of the surname combined this into a single character 𪏛.[3]

Yuxiong (鬻熊), the progenitor of Chu, was the tutor of King Wen of Zhou and died during his reign.

After Zhou overthrew the Shang Dynasty, Yuxiong's descendants took Xiong as their clan name and remained prominent at court.

King Wen's grandson King Cheng of Zhou (reigned 1042 – 1021 BC) awarded Yuxiong's great-grandson Xiong Yi the hereditary title of zǐ (子, roughly "viscount") and the fiefdom of Chu.[4] As it grew in power and importance, the Xiong dynasty formed its ruling house and the ruling houses of some of its successor states. To this day, the surname remains prominent in the provinces comprising the former territory of Chu.

List of persons with the surname

References
  1. United States Census Bureau. "Census 2000: Chinese Largest Asian Group in the United States". 4 Mar 2002. Accessed 29 Mar 2012.
  2. United States Census Bureau. "Genealogy Data: Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000". 27 Sept 2011. Accessed 29 Mar 2012.
  3. Requires archaic Chinese font support.　Note the lack of the fire radical on the right.
  4. Sima Qian. "楚世家 (House of Chu)". Records of the Grand Historian (in Chinese). Retrieved 3 December 2011.
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