Chinese : from the name of the state of Tan during
the Zhou dynasty. After Wu Wang established the Zhou dynasty in 1122
bc, he enfeoffed the state of Tan to a descendant of the
model emperor Yu (2205–2198 bc), with the status of
Viscount. Descendants adopted the name of the state Tan as their
surname.Chinese : said to be from the name of a
certain King Tan of the state of Song, a 36th-generation descendant of
its founder (see Song).Chinese : variant
of Chen.Chinese : there are two groups of
bearers of the character for this surname: one pronounced Tan, and the
other Qin (see Qin), although both are represented with the
same character.Korean: there are three Chinese characters
for this surname; two of them are used by clans that now have only one
surviving family each, according to a recent census. Some records
indicate that there are 10 clans that use the third character for
their surname, but only two can be documented: the Kangüm clan and
the Yönan clan. Neither of these clans is very large.Filipino: unexplained.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
53,721
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Tan
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.co.uk.
You can find out where the majority of the Tan families were living before
they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
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port of arrival, and destination.
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