Ung
A surname with a few possible origins, most likely from Germanic or East/Southeast Asian naming traditions rather than a single source.
The #7,369 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,322 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ung is not one of the common surnames with a single clear origin, and the historical excerpts provided do not actually give a direct dictionary entry for this name. In European contexts, similar-looking forms can be tied to Germanic name elements or place-based spellings, but the evidence here is too thin to assign a firm derivation. As a modern surname, Ung is also found among families of Chinese, Khmer, and Vietnamese background, where it may represent different original characters or spellings depending on the language and migration history.
History
The surname appears in multiple unrelated communities, so its history is best understood as several separate lines rather than one family tree. In the United States, it is especially associated with immigrant families from East or Southeast Asia, while in older European records some similar spellings can reflect local surnames or transcription variants. Because the provided sources do not discuss Ung directly, no specific historical bearer can be confirmed from them.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Latin-letter spelling, Ung, can hide completely different surnames with unrelated meanings across different languages.
From the historical record
“(Fr. quarteron, a fourth part), 'a quarter of land', of Irish place-nomenclature ; and Eng. farthing (O.E. fedr^ung, a fourth part), 'a division of land', also found in place-names] URRY (Teut.) an assim. form of the Domesday Ulric, Uluric, representing the O.N. form,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)