Meaning "peace", "tranquility" Related names | Region of origin China | |
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The surname An (Chinese: 安; pinyin: Ān) literally means "peace" or "tranquility". It also serves as an abbreviation of Anxi (安息), meaning "Arsacid" in Chinese and can be romanized as On. Visitors to China who came from Arsacid-held territories often took the name An. In 2008, it was the 110th most common surname in the People's Republic of China, shared by over 1.7 million citizens. The surname is most common in Northern China.
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During the Song Dynasty, another An (俺) was a Jewish Chinese surname.
Parthian
During the Qin and Han Dynasty, the most common origin of the surname An was as a contraction of Anxi, meaning "Arsacid", and was thus given to people of Arsacid-territory origin, such as An Shigao, the royal of Arsacid Empire. Also, An Xuan is another Parthian, who followed An Shigao to Luoyang.
During the 3rd Century, An Faqin (安法欽) is a Parthian Buddhist from the Arsacid, became to Xijin (西晉) in the Chinese Dynasty.
Xueyantuo
During the Northern Wei period in the 6th century, Anchi/Anzhi (安迟) was the Xianbei surname of Uyghur people (回鶻人) a division of the Hui people; they later reduced the surname to An (安). During the Tang Dynasty in the 8th century, the An (安) family name was used among the Xueyantuo (薛延陀) people.
Iranian
In the Tang Dynasty period 9th century, An was also sometimes used as the name for the region of Sogdia (modern-day Uzbekistan); previously, Sogdians had exclusively used the surname of Kang (康). The addition was due to the existence of two Sogdian kingdoms, identified as An and Kangju; the state of An was accordingly named due to its occupation by the Arsacids.
Khitan
During the Qing Dynasty, Ardan (阿爾丹) the Daur people (達斡爾族) were given the surname An (安) with the Ar dialect.