Hong
A surname of several possible Asian origins, most commonly Chinese, and also found in Korean and other East Asian communities.
The #1,106 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,749 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hong is not a single-origin surname in the way many English surnames are. In Chinese usage, it can represent several different characters with different meanings and lineages, including common clan surnames romanized as Hong in older and modern systems. It is also a well-established surname in Korea, where it comes from the Sino-Korean family name Hong. In some cases outside East Asia, the spelling may reflect immigration or romanization choices rather than a single shared ancestral root.
History
The form is especially familiar in English through East Asian migration and diaspora communities, and in the United States it is now a moderately common surname. Because the same spelling can represent different Chinese characters and different naming traditions, family histories under Hong may be unrelated even when the spelling matches. English-language surname dictionaries from the 19th century do not treat it as an inherited English surname, so its history is chiefly one of transliteration and migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Roman spelling “Hong” can correspond to different original Chinese characters, so two families with the same surname spelling may have completely separate ancestral roots.
From the historical record
“Hen. VIII., this Richard is written Awmoke, and still later Hawiuoke. It is worth recording that " Almack riace," in Hong Kong, wae named after William A., one of the founders of the city of Victoria in that Colony, who died on his voyage fi-om China in 1846. The founder of the celebrated Alraack's l?ooms was of a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom