Yuan
A Chinese surname that originally referred to a historical state and later became a family name tied to that name.
The #4,129 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 35,951 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Yuan is a Chinese surname written with the character 元, 袁, or other less common characters in different family lines. The most common surname Yuan is usually associated with the character 袁, whose origin is ancient and likely began as a place name or clan name in early Chinese history. In English, it is commonly rendered as Yuan, with the standard Mandarin pronunciation approximately "yoo-ahn".
History
Yuan has been in use in China since antiquity and is carried by several unrelated lineages that use the same romanization. It spread widely through Chinese migration to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and later to North America and other diaspora communities. Because the same spelling can represent different Chinese characters, family histories may vary even when the surname appears identical in Latin letters.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In romanized form, Yuan can hide more than one Chinese surname tradition, so two families with the same spelling may not share the same ancestral character.