Table of contents
Family name origins & meanings
- Chinese :
from the place name Pan, which existed in the state of Wei during the Zhou dynasty. Bi Gonggao, fifteenth son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang, was granted a state named Wei when the Zhou dynasty came to power in 1122 bc (see Feng 1). Bi Gonggao in turn granted the area called Pan to one of his sons, whose descendants eventually adopted Pan as their surname. This name is also Romanized as Poon, Pun, and Pon. - Korean : There are two Chinese characters for this surname; only one of them, however, is common enough to warrant treatment here. There are three clans which use this character: the Kisŏng (also called the Kŏje), the Kwangju, and the Namp’yŏng. The founding ancestors of these clans were Koryŏ (918–1392) figures, and it is widely believed that they were related.
- Spanish and southern French (Occitan) : metonymic occupational name for a baker or a pantryman, from Spanish and Occitan pan ‘bread’ (Latin panis).
- English and Dutch : metonymic occupational name for someone who cast pans, from Middle English, Middle Dutch panne ‘pan’.
- Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : from Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish pan ‘lord’, ‘master’, ‘landowner’, hence a nickname for a haughty person.
- Perhaps also an Americanized spelling or translation of German Pfann (North German Pann).