An

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• Chinese : from the name of the ancient country known in China as AnXi, located in present-day Uzbekistan. Traditional accounts record that the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) had a grandson named An (the character for ‘peace’) who moved to the far west to establish AnXi, losing contact with the Middle Kingdom. When the people of AnXi decided to return to China during the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 ad), they adopted their tribal name, An, as their surname.
• Korean : there is only one Chinese character for the An surname; it means ‘peace’. Some sources indicate that there are 109 An clans, but only six can be documented. All had one common founding ancestor, named Yi W{ou}n, who migrated from China to Shilla Korea in ad 807. Yi’s three sons played a major role in resisting Japanese aggression during the reign of the Shilla King Ky{ou}ngmun (861–875) and received the surname as a reward from the king. It is now quite a common Korean surname and can be found throughout the peninsula.

Appears on

• ​The Ultimate List of Buddhist Names for Your Little One
• ​100 Names That Mean Peace for Your Baby
• ​Japanese First Names and Meanings