GGood Chinese Name

Chinese surname · rank 256

甄

甄 is read as zhēn.

Pinyin

zhēn

Script forms

Simplified and traditional 甄

Basic meaning

to examine, discern; to grade; a surname

Five element

Earth

Origin

Time: Shun-era Gaoyao and pottery-craft traditions, Song Shandong-centered distribution layer, and Ming Shaanxi-centered distribution layer; Song textual or Bai Jia Xing layer, 960-1279 CE

Place: Gaoyao/Zhong Zhen tradition; pottery-craft contexts associated with Shun-era ceramic work; later Shandong, Hunan, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi distribution contexts

Origin note

is a two-layer surname in the checked sources. One line is ancestor-name based: Gaoyao, also called Jiuyou, was remembered as Shun's law-making minister, and his second son Zhong Zhen became the ancestor of a Yan-surname branch whose descendants used Zhen as a surname. A second line is craft based: in the Shun era, people who made tiles or pottery vessels were called zhen, and descendants of such pottery workers used the craft name as a surname. The page keeps the Gaoyao/Zhong Zhen line and the pottery-craft line separate because one is an ancestral-name tradition and the other is occupational.

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.

Sources checked