Zhang as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Zhang

What is the meaning of the name Zhang ?

The baby name Zhang is a boy name , 1 syllables long and is pronounced ZHANG.

Zhang is Chinese, Old Chinese in Origin.

Zhang represents Mandarin Zhāng for the Chinese surname 張, simplified 张. Its root language is Old Chinese, with the early written form 張 reconstructed roughly as *traŋ. The graph is phono-semantic: 弓, bow, supplies the semantic field, while 長, long, acts chiefly as the sound element. The older verbal sense was to stretch or spread, especially to draw a bow; the surname is therefore glossed literally as drawing a bow.

As a family name, 張 was placed twenty-fourth in the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames and has been especially numerous in northern and eastern China; it ranked third in mainland China in recent household-registration counts and fourth in Taiwan, where Chang long reflected Wade-Giles spelling. Cantonese and southern Min speech communities produced romanizations such as Cheung, Cheong, Teo, and Tiong, while cognate forms include Korean Jang and Vietnamese Trương. Classical origin stories connect some lineages with Jin nobles, Zhang Liao’s family in the Three Kingdoms period, and surname grants to non-Han groups.