Yang
A major East Asian surname, especially Chinese, with several possible but distinct origins depending on the characters used.
The #290 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 2,912 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Yang is a surname found in several East Asian naming traditions, most prominently Chinese. In Chinese it is usually written with the character 杨/楊, which originally referred to a kind of willow or poplar tree, though different Yang lineages can use other characters with other meanings. Because the same romanized form can represent different surnames and characters across languages and dialects, the name does not have one single universal etymology.
History
In English-language records, Yang often reflects modern transliteration of Chinese, Korean, or other East Asian surnames rather than an older native English surname. It has become especially common in the United States through immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries and is now one of the more frequent Asian surnames in American census data. The historical excerpts provided do not offer a surname origin entry; one merely shows a similar-looking word in an unrelated Chaucer quotation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In Chinese, the surname 杨/楊 is also the name of a tree, which is one reason the surname is sometimes glossed as 'willow' or 'poplar' in older references.
From the historical record
“YONGE } '^■^- '^°™® °^ Young, q.v. With hym ther was his sone, a yang squier. — Chaucer, Prol. Cant. Tales, 79. YONGEMAN = Youngman, q.v. " yS§Le}= Yule, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)