Chen (陳)
A Taiwanese surname.
陳 Ch'en
- Zhuyin
- ㄔㄣˊ
- Pinyin
- chén
- Wade-Giles
- Ch'en
- Further spellings of 陳
- Chen
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Tân Tân is the colloquial (白讀) reading, while tîn is the character's literary (文讀) reading.
- Hakka (Sixian)
- ciin¹¹
- Rank in Taiwan
- 1st most common surname, roughly 11.21% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
As a verb it means 'to arrange, set out' or 'to state'; as an adjective, 'old, long-stored'. It is also the name of an ancient state and of the Chen dynasty.
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to the state of Chen (陳), in present-day Henan, which King Wu of Zhou granted to Gui Man (媯滿, Duke Hu of Chen), a descendant of the sage-king Shun. Its people later adopted the state's name as their surname. Hall name (堂號): 頴川堂.
Saying it 我姓陳 — wǒ xìng chén (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄔㄣˊ), "my family name is 陳"
Sources: rank and share, 內政部 全國姓名統計分析 (Ministry of the Interior, National Name Statistics), data as of 2023-06-30. Taiwanese Hokkien readings, 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi), 百家姓 appendix. Hakka, 教育部臺灣客語辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka), 百家姓表, Sixian (四縣腔).