Seng
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- German: 'to singe'
- Korean: 'to accomplish' (成), 'star' (星)
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Seng is a Cambodian, Chinese, German, and Korean surname.
Seng may be the spelling of multiple Chinese surnames, based on their pronunciation in different varieties of Chinese; they are listed below by their spelling in Hanyu Pinyin, which reflects the standard Mandarin pronunciation:
- Sēng (僧), a surname found primarily in Henan. The word itself originated from the Sanskrit sangha 'association', and in Chinese most commonly means bhikkhu 'Buddhist monk'. In some cases it may have originated as an occupational surname, in others as a transcription into Chinese characters of a Mongolian name.[1][2]
- Chéng (成), spelled Seng based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects (e.g. Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sêng; Teochew Peng'im: Sêng5)[3][4]
- Shéng (盛), homophonous or nearly-homophonous with the above surname in most Southern Min dialects (e.g. Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sêng; Teochew Peng'im: Sêng6)[5]
- Chén (陳/陈), spelled Seng based on its Hainanese pronunciation (Hainanese Transliteration Scheme: Sin2). This spelling is found for example in Singapore.[6][7]
- Shěn (沈)
- Zhuāng (莊/庄)
The Cambodian surname Seng (សេង) probably originates from the Southern Min pronunciations of Chéng or Shéng.
The German surname Seng in most cases originated as a toponymic surname for a person who lived on land which had been cleared by fire, from Middle High German sengen 'to singe'.[8][9] In some cases it originated as an occupational surname for a farmer, from MHG senge 'ready to cut (of grain)', or as a patronymic from the hypocorism Seng (whose origin is unclear). Though there is a village by the name Seng in Altötting district in far southeastern Bavaria, the distribution of the surname within Germany (largely concentrated in northwestern Bavaria and neighbouring states) appears to rule out the earlier theory that the surname was related to that village.[9]
As a Korean surname, Seng is the spelling, in the relatively rare Yale romanization of Korean, of the surname spelled in the much-more-common Revised Romanization of Korean as Seong (Korean: 성). It can be written with either of two hanja: Irul Seong (이룰 成 'to accomplish'; same character as for the second Chinese surname listed above), and Byeol Seong (별 星 'star').[10][11]
