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Surname list From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ban is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 班 in Chinese character. It is romanized "Pan" in Wade–Giles. Ban is listed 235th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.[1] It is not among the 300 most common surnames in China.[when?][2] In 2013 it was the 269th most common surname shared by 273,000 people, comprising 0.021% of the total population and the provincial level unit with the most people having the name being Guangxi.
Pronunciation | Ban (Mandarin) |
---|---|
Language(s) | Chinese |
Origin | |
Language(s) | Old Chinese |
Meaning | Stripes (of a tiger) |
Other names | |
Variant form(s) | Pan |
The surname Ban originated from Mi 芈, the royal surname of the State of Chu of ancient China. Dou Gouwutu (鬬穀於菟; fl. 7th century BC), a grandson of the Chu ruler Ruo'ao, was said to have been abandoned as an infant and nursed by a tigress. His given name Gouwutu, meant nursed (穀 gòu, milk) by a tiger (於菟 wūtú, tiger) in the Chu language. Dou Gouwutu grew up to become a general and the Prime Minister of Chu. His descendants adopted Ban (meaning "stripes", an allusion to tiger's stripes) as their surname.[3]
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