Xiong (surname)

熊 is also romanized as Hsiung² in Wade-Giles. It is Hung or Hong in Cantonese; Him in Hokkien, Hong or Yoong in Hakka; Hiōng in Gan; Hùng in Vietnamese; and Xyooj in Hmong.

Note that "Hong" and "Hung" may also refer to the unrelated surname 洪.

熊 is the 71st most common surname in mainland China.

Although Chinese make up the largest part of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population,[1] none of the romanizations of 熊 appeared among the 1000 most common surnames during the AD 2000 US census.[2]

Xiong's literal meaning is "bear".

In ancient China, it was used as a clan name by a branch of the Mi (芈), the royal family of the state of Chu. As recorded by Sima Qian, they claimed descent from Zhuanxu, a son of the Yellow Emperor in Chinese legend, and Yuxiong (鬻熊), a tutor of the Wen King of Zhou in the 11th century BC. After the victory of the Wu King over the Shang at Muye c. 1046 BC, Yuxiong's descendants supposedly remained prominent at the Zhou court and took the surname Xiong. The Cheng King (r. 1042–1021 BC) then created Xiong Yi, Yuxiong's great-grandson, the viscount of the fief of Chu.[3] More likely, the clan name is a calque of a non-Sinitic dynasty, with modern scholarship believing the character 芈 was used to transcribe a Kam–Tai word also meaning "bear".[4]

Eventually rising to the status of kings, the family retained control of Chu until its conquest by Qin during the Warring States Period. Some regained control of later successor states and the surname remains prominent in the provinces formerly comprising the territory of Chu.