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Updated January 23, 2020

Family name origins & meanings

  • Chinese : from the name of a place called Fan, which existed during the Zhou dynasty. The Western Zhou dynasty’s penultimate king, Xuan Wang (827–781 bc), executed a direct descendant of the model emperor Yao. The latter’s son fled to the state of Jin, where he became a distinguished general and was granted the area called Fan. His descendants adopted the place name as their surname.
  • Chinese : from a different place of the same period, also written in English as Fan. Zhong Shanfu, a senior adviser to Xuan Wang (827–781 BC), the penultimate king of the Western Zhou dynasty, is considered to have been a major factor in the exceptional success of this king during a period of generally declining authority for the Zhou kings. He was successful in conquering and pacifying tribes to the north, south, and west, and for this service he was granted the area of Fan. His descendants took the place name Fan as their surname.

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