Chinese surnames Chen

陳 Chén   (Traditional) 陈 Chén  (Simplified)

Chan Cantonese, Ting/Ding Foochow, Tan Hokkien Chin Hakka

Chen ([ʈʂʰə̌n]) (simplified Chinese: 陈; traditional Chinese: 陳; pinyin: Chén; Wade–Giles: Ch'en) is one of the most common East Asian surnames of Chinese origin. It ranks as the 5th most common surname in China as of 2007 and the most common surname in Singapore (2000) and Taiwan (2010).

This is me holding a book written by a Chen's group in New Zealand. I had to borrow this. China is very big with over 1.4 billion people and people speaking different dialects. The writing however is the same. I grew up where there are different dialects, and my Quang Ning Chen is written as Chan. There are others, Ting/Ding Foochow, Tan Hokkien Chin Hakka.

Recently, some one thought I was a Chang/Zhang which is another 张?

To make it more complicated, I married a Hakka whose Chen is Chin, hence my professional name is Chin-Chan.