Shěn


Shěn is the Mandarin Hanyu pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname.
Shen is the 14th surname in the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames.

Romanisation

沈 is romanised as Sum, Sem, Sam, or Shum in Cantonese; Sim in Hokkien; Shim in Hakka; Shim, Sim, and Sheem in Korean; and Thẩm in Vietnamese.
Less commonly, the same character can also be pronounced Zhen, which indicates a different origin from Shen.

Distribution

Shen was the 52nd-most-common surname in mainland China in 2018 and ranked 40th in the 100 most common surnames in Taiwan in 2016. There are approximately 6 million 沈 accounting for 0.5% of the Han Chinese population in Mainland China, concentrated in the Eastern Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. As of the top 30 cities in China，top ranking last names rank 沈 as 6th most common in Hangzhou and 8th most common in Shanghai.
The South Korea population of 沈 in 2015 is 272,049 whereas in 2009, 沈 accounted for 0.9% or 23,800 people of the population in Singapore.
Although Chinese make up the largest part of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population, none of the romanizations of "沈" appeared among the 1000 most common surnames during the AD 2000 US census although "shen" ranked #3690, "shum" ranked #13,730, "shim" ranked #7576, "tham" ranked #21,829. In the 1990 US census however, "shen" ranked #10,565, "shum" ranked #22,632, "shim" ranked #9771, "tham" ranked #28,237.

Historical Ranking

Since the Northern Song Dynasty, 沈 has always been ranked above the top 60 surnames in China.
List NumberDynasty or ListYearRank
1Northern Song 北宋960-112714
2Southern Song 宋朝1127-137954
3Mongol Dynasty 元朝　1271-136860
4Ming Dynasty 明朝　1368-164418
5Chinese Academy of Social Sciences198228
6Chinese Academy of Social Sciences198737
7Chinese Language Institute List199545
8Mainland 100 Surnames Investigation200649
9Ministry of Public Security200750
10China Fuxi Cultural Research201349
11Nationwide Survey List201051
12Population Surname List201852

Origin

As is common with Chinese surnames, the modern Shen family arose from various unrelated sources.
One origin traces it to the Shen kingdom in Runan County, Henan. These people were descended from Shao Hao, whose grandson was Zhuanxu's teacher and fathered Yun Ge and Tai Dai. Tai Dai was granted Shanxi for his achievements in controlling the flooding of the Yellow River and his descendants divided into four "kingdoms": the Shen, the Yi, the Ru, and the Huang. Electing not to participate in the northern kingdoms' campaign against Chu in 506 BC, Shen was invaded and destroyed by Cai. The rulers and vassals of the former state then bore the clan name Shen to distinguish themselves.
Another group descended from the rulers and vassals of the revived state of Shen after King Cheng granted it to the Zhou prince Ran Ji for suppressing the rebellion following the death of his brother King Wu.
A third group derived from the Mi family of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period. Chu had conquered the area of Shen and, in 506 BC, its governor was Shenyin Shua Chu field marshal from a cadet branch of the royal house. He was killed in the Battle of Boju that year, opposing a Wu invasion led by Wu Zixu and Sun Tzu. In his memory, some of his descendants and vassals adopted the clan name Shen for his fief, while others became the Ye after the fief granted to Shenyin Shu's son Shen Zhuliang, better known as the Duke of Ye.

Branches

The You clan is said to be a branch of the Shen clan, having simply removed the side-water radical 氵 from their surname sometime in the 10th century due to conflict with a different Shen ruling family in Fujian Province. Owing to this, the You and Shen continued to be unable to intermarry, just as if they were still a single clan.
The side-water radical plus results in the Chinese character surname.

Historical figures with the Surname