Chinese surname · rank 220
沙
沙 is read as shā.
shā
Simplified and traditional 沙
sand, gravel, pebbles; granulated
Earth
Time: Ancient Sha state and Western Zhou Shasui traditions; Yan-di/Shennong Sushashi tradition; later medieval Baekje/Jurchen/Yuan and Qing Manchu/Hui layers; Western Zhou tradition, 1046-771 BCE
Place: Shating at Yuancheng near present Daming, Hebei; Shasui near present Ningling, Henan; Jiaodong, Shandong for Sushashi; later Shandong, Jiangsu, northeast, northwest, and Hui distribution layers
Origin note
Sha is a multi-origin surname. One source-backed layer comes from an ancient Sha state at Shating in Yuancheng, identified with the southeast of present Daming in Hebei; the state is said to have been called Suo in the Spring and Autumn period, and some inhabitants used the state name as a surname. A second layer is Zi-surname and Song-related: Shasui was a Western Zhou state near present Ningling in Henan, later absorbed by Song; descendants of the Song founder Wei Ziqi who held or lived in Sha used the place name Sha as a surname, a line that 23mofang dates to about 3000 years. A third layer is Jiang-surname and linked to Sushashi, a polity or group in the Yan-di/Shennong tradition in the Jiaodong region, remembered for boiling seawater to make salt; later descendants used the state or group name. Later layers include Baekje/Sha clan movement, Jurchen and Yuan-period Sha surnames, Manchu Fuca and Shala changes, southwest local adoption, Hui Muslim Sha surnames from names containing Sha, and bestowed-surname cases. This page keeps the ancient state, Song-place, Sushashi, and later adoption layers distinct.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
This surname page is ready for a fame-ranked figure list. Later passes can add generals, poets, rulers, artists, scholars and modern public figures with source links.