Wang
Wang is a royalty rank and a surname in China and Korea.
This article is about Wang as surnames. See Chinese noble and Korean nobility for royalty rank.
Chinese surname
Wang (王 in pinyin: Wáng; in penkyamp & Jyutping: Wong4) is the most common Chinese family name and literally means "king" (See Chinese noble#Wang), although the name itself has no royal implications. The "-ang" sound in pinyin is supposed to be pronounced as in German and so the name is frequently mispronounced by American English speakers as IPA [wæŋ], rather than [waŋ], its correct pronunciation. The name is also frequently transliterated "Wong" especially for people from Hong Kong or from Guangdong. This other transliteration sounds much more similar to the Chinese pronunciation.
Wang is also the pinyin transliteration of 汪 (pinyin Wāng), a lesser occurring surname among the Hundred Family Names.
It is also is the Cantonese Romanization of some uncommon family names: 橫 (Pinyin: Héng), 弘 (Hóng), 閎 (Hóng), 宏 (Hóng).
Korean surname
Wang is a Korean family name 왕 but very rare in Korea. The Goryeo Dynasty royal family name was Wang. However, after the Goryeo Dynasty fell, the royal Wangs changed their surname to avoid severe persecution from the subsequent Joseon Dynasty.
Japanese surname
Oh or O is a rare Japanese family name which is the equivalence of Wang. Oh/O is the way Japanese pronounce the character 王. Most of the Japanese with such a surname are Chinese descendants.
Prominent people with surname 왕
- The royal family of Goryeo Dynasty
Prominent people with family name 王
- O Rissei, a famous Go player
- Sadaharu Oh, the all-time home run king
- An Wang, computer scientist who founded Wang Laboratories
- Wang An-shih, politician during the Song Dynasty.
- Wang Chien-shien, politician of the Republic of China
- Wang Chung, general during the Three Kingdoms
- Wang Dao, stateman and chief advisor of Emperor Yuan of Jin China
- Wang Dun, ambitious militant of the Eastern Jin Dynasty
- Empress Dowager Wang, mother of Emperor Cheng of Han China and aunt of Wang Mang
- Wang Fanxi, Trotskyist
- Wang Fuzhi, philosopher during late Ming Dynasty.
- Wang Guangya, UN ambassador
- Wang Mang, founder of Xin Dynasty
- Wang Meng, chief advisor of Fu Jian.
- Wang Pi, Taoist philosopher during the Three Kingdoms
- Wang Shizhen, a Yuan Shikai's Beiyang subordinate
- Vera Wang, designer
- Wayne Wang, movie director
- Wang Xizhi, calligrapher during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
- Wang Yan, stateman and Taoist philosopher during the Western Jin Dynasty.
- Wang Zhaojun, beauty married to foreigner chief
- Faye Wong, singer
- Wong Kar-wai, movie director
Prominent people with family name 汪
