Bong (surname)

Bong
Language(s)Chinese (Hakka, Hokkien), Korean, Swedish, others
Origin
Region of originBelgium, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sweden, others
Other names
Variant form(s)
  • Chinese: Huang, Wang, Meng
  • Korean: Pong

Bong is a surname in various cultures.

Origins

Bong may be a spelling of a number of Chinese surnames based on their pronunciation in different varieties of Chinese.[1] They are listed below by their Hanyu Pinyin spelling, which reflects the Standard Mandarin pronunciation:

  • Huáng (黃, meaning "yellow"); spelled Bong based on the Hakka pronunciation in dialects spoken in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia[2]
  • Wáng (王, meaning "king"); spelled Bong based on the Hakka pronunciation in dialects spoken in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia[2]
  • Méng [zh] (蒙); spelled Bong based on the Hokkien pronunciation (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bông)

Bong is the Revised Romanization spelling of a Korean surname originally written using either of two hanja.[3] These surnames are also spelled Pong in most other systems of romanising Korean (e.g. McCune–Reischauer, Yale, and North Korea's system), and are both used as Chinese surnames as well, pronounced Fèng in Mandarin.

  • Batdeul Bong (奉; 받들 봉; meaning "to offer" or "to serve")
  • Bongsae Bong (鳳; 봉새 봉; the name of a mythical bird)

Bong may also be a Belgian surname of unclear origin, a Swedish surname originating from the word bang meaning "noise", and a Tibetan clan name.[1][4]

Statistics

In the Netherlands, there were 53 people with the surname Bong as of 2007, primarily of Chinese Indonesian origin.[5] The 2000 South Korean census found 11,819 people in 3,629 households with the surnames spelled Bong in the Revised Romanization of Korean, divided among 11,492 people in 3,528 households for Batdeul Bong, and 327 people in 101 households for Bongsae Bong.[3] Statistics compiled by Patrick Hanks on the basis of the 2011 United Kingdom census and the Census of Ireland 2011 found 53 people with the surname Bong on the island of Great Britain and one on the island of Ireland. In the 1881 United Kingdom census there were five bearers of the surname.[1] The 2010 United States census found 1,208 people with the surname Bong, making it the 21,599th-most-common surname in the country. This represented an increase from 1,051 people (22,783rd-most-common) in the 2000 census. In the 2010 census, roughly 44% of the bearers of the surname identified as Asian (up from 36% in the 2000 census), and 50% as non-Hispanic white (down from 58% in the 2000 census).[6]

People

Chinese surnames

Korean surnames

Other

Fictional characters

  • Doctor Bong, an American comic book character introduced in 1977
  • Bong Dal-hee, the title character of the 2007 South Korean television series Surgeon Bong Dal-hee

References

  1. ^ a b c Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter, eds. (2016). The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press. p. 278. ISBN 9780192527479.
  2. ^ a b For both of these surnames, the mainstream Hakka pronunciation would be spelled with a "v", e.g. Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Vòng. However, in some dialects of Hakka spoken on Borneo, including in Singkawang, Kuching, and Serian, the initial has shifted to /b/. This is possibly due to crosslinguistic influence from the Malay language, which lacks voiced labial fricatives. Hakka as spoken in peninsular Malaysia does not exhibit this shift. See 吳中杰 [Wu Chung-chieh]; 陳素秋 [Tan Su-chiew] (May 2015). 砂拉越古晉石角區甲港客語音韻及詞彙調查與比較研究 [Phonological and Lexical Investigation and Comparative Studies on Hakka in Sungai Tapang, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia] (PDF). Global Hakka Studies. 6: 142. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b "행정구역(구시군)/성씨·본관별 가구 및 인구" [Family names by administrative region (district, city, county): separated by bon-gwan, households and individuals]. Korean Statistical Information Service. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  4. ^ Takeuchi, Tsuguhito (1994). A Study of the Old Tibetan Contracts. Indiana University. pp. 88, 256. OCLC 1074873897.
  5. ^ "Bong". Nederlandse Familienamenbank. Centrum voor familiegeschiedenis. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
  6. ^ "How common is your last name? (Bong)". Newsday. Retrieved 5 September 2018.