Ban Family History

Croatian, Slovenian, and Serbian; Hungarian and Slovak (Bán): nickname from Hungarian bán, South Slavic ban, or Slovak bán ‘governor’. Hungarian Bán was also used as a personal name. Historically, the word ban is found mostly as a Croatian status name for a regional military or administrative leader. The surname possibly denoted a person in the service of a ban or one who came from a land under the authority of a ban.

As a surname of Hungarian origin, Ban is also common in Romania. Slovenian: from a short form of the personal name Urban. Polish: from a pet form of the personal name Benedykt, an equivalent of Latin Benedictus (see Benedict). German: variant of Bann.

Japanese: written 伴 ‘comrade’. It is found mostly in eastern Japan. Some families pronounce the same character as Tomo. Chinese: Mandarin form of the surname 班 meaning ‘squad’ or ‘theatrical troupe’ in Chinese: from the second character of the personal name Dou Ban (斗班), which was the personal name of a prince, a grandson of king Ruo Ao (died c.764 BC) of the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC).

Chinese: Hokkien or Taiwanese form of the Chinese surname 萬, see Wan. Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 馮, possibly based on its Hokkien or Teochew pronunciation, see Feng. Korean: variant of Pan.

Vietnamese (Bàn): from the Chinese surname 盤, see Pan.