Chin (surname)

As a Chinese surname, Chin could originate from numerous Chinese characters including the following, listed by their spelling in Mandarin Pinyin:^[1]

• Chen (traditional Chinese: 陳; simplified Chinese: 陈), spelled Chin based on its pronunciation in multiple varieties of Chinese including Hakka (Hagfa Pinyim: Cin²; IPA: /t͡sʰɨn¹¹/).^[2][3] This spelling of the surname is particularly common in Jamaica, to the extent that other Jamaicans will often use the nickname "Miss Chin" to address any Chinese Jamaican woman whose name they do not know.^[4]
• Jīn (Chinese: 金; IPA: /t͡ɕin⁵⁵/), spelled Chin in the Wade–Giles system used until the mid-20th century and still widespread in Taiwan.^[5]
• Jìn (Chinese: 靳; IPA: /t͡ɕin⁵¹/), spelled Chin in the Wade–Giles system.^[6]
• Qián (traditional Chinese: 錢; simplified Chinese: 钱), spelled Chin based on its pronunciation in Cantonese (Jyutping: Cin4; Cantonese Yale: Chìhn; IPA: /t͡sʰiːn²¹/). Written with a character meaning "money", according to tradition this originated as an occupational surname during the Western Zhou dynasty.^[7]
• Qín (Chinese: 秦; IPA: /t͡ɕʰin³⁵/), spelled Chin based on a simplification of the Wade–Giles spelling Ch'in. This originated as a toponymic surname, referring either to the state of Qin or to later places with the same name.^[8]

As a Korean surname, Chin is the McCune–Reischauer romanisation of the four surnames more commonly spelled Jin in the Revised Romanization of Korean (Korean: 진; Hanja: 陳, 秦, 眞, or 晉; IPA: /t͡ɕin/). There is no modern Korean surname which Revised Romanization would spell as Chin (친).^[9][10]

As an English surname, Chin is a variant spelling of Chinn (from Middle English chinne or chyn), which originated as a nickname for people with prominent or distinctive chins.^[11]

The 2000 South Korean census found 170,980 people with the four Korean surnames spelled Chin in McCune–Reischauer.^[9] However, relatively few South Koreans with these surnames choose to spell them as Chin. In a study based on year 2007 application data for South Korean passports, 94.3% of the applicants with one of these surnames chose the spelling Jin for their passport, while only 4.7% chose the spelling Chin.^[10]

According to statistics cited by Patrick Hanks, 1,504 people on the island of Great Britain and 17 on the island of Ireland bore the surname Chin in 2011. In 1881 there were 53 people with the surname in Great Britain, primarily at Cornwall.^[1]

The 2010 United States census found 27,487 people with the surname Chin, making it the 1,279th-most-common name overall. This represented an increase in absolute numbers, but a decrease in relative frequency, from 25,673 (1,255th-most-common) in the 2000 Census. In both censuses, slightly more than three quarters of the bearers of the surname identified as Asian, about 6% as White, and about 6% as Black.^[12] It was the 50th-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 Census who identified as Asian.^[13]