Chinese surname · rank 328
鄢
鄢 is read as yān.
yān
Simplified and traditional 鄢
name of a district in Honan
Earth
Time: Western Zhou Yun-surname Yan state tradition, early Spring and Autumn Zheng destruction surname formation, Spring and Autumn Chu Yan/Jiangshi place-name layer, Song Jiangxi distribution, Ming Sichuan-Jiangxi-Hubei-Fujian-Anhui distribution, and Qing/modern Manchu and Tujia layers; Western Zhou tradition, 1046-771 BCE
Place: Yan state near present-day northwest Yanling, Henan; Chu Yan around present-day southeast Yicheng, Hubei, northwest of Ying; Song Jiangxi distribution; Ming Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hubei, Fujian and Anhui distribution; Shenyang Manchu branch in Qing summaries; Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Hunan modern concentration in later summaries
Origin note
Yan is read yan as a surname. The strongest layer is a state-name surname from the old Yun-surname Yan state: sources place this Yan near present-day Yanling in Henan and say that after Zheng destroyed it in the early Spring and Autumn period, descendants used the state name as a surname. A second layer is a Chu place-name surname from a Yan place or small polity northwest of Ying, around present-day Yicheng in Hubei; this Mi-surname layer is tied to the Chu official Yan Jiangshi and helps explain why Hubei is important in later Yan distribution. Later summaries also record Manchu and Tujia Yan branches. This page therefore treats Yan as a two-core-source surname, one from Henan Yan state and one from Chu-Hubei Yan place, with later ethnic and regional layers.
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.