The Qian surname (钱 / 錢)

How do you pronounce the surname 钱?

As a surname, 钱 is pronounced Qián in Mandarin (written Qian without tone marks).

How is Qian written in Chinese?

Simplified Chinese: 钱. Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, Hong Kong, most overseas genealogies): 錢.

How common is the Qian surname?

According to Yuan Yida and Qiu Jiaru's study of the 400 most common Chinese surnames (2013), about 2.5 million people in mainland China are named Qian — 0.19% of the population, ranking 93rd.

In the Ministry of Public Security's 2020 national name report (household registration), Qian ranks 94th.

Where in China is the Qian surname most common?

According to the same 2013 study, the province with the most people named Qian is Jiangsu.

Is Qian in the Hundred Family Surnames?

Yes — 钱 is number 2 in the Hundred Family Surnames (Baijiaxing), a Song-dynasty primer. Its order reflects the rhyme of the text, not population.

What are the other English spellings of Qian?

The same Chinese surname is spelled differently by region and era — check all of them when searching immigration or overseas records:

• Hanyu Pinyin (Mainland China): Qian
• Wade–Giles (Taiwan, older usage): Ch'ien
• Cantonese (Hong Kong, overseas): Chin; Jyutping cin4
• Korean: 전
• Vietnamese: Tiền

How do I build a Qian family tree?

Start with your own branch: record the ancestors you are sure of, then parents, siblings and descendants, generation by generation, with dates, spouses, migrations and burial places. Then invite relatives to fill in their own branches.

The KinTraces genealogy workbench lets a family build a Qian genealogy together online — relatives claim their own entries, adoptions and dual heirship are recorded on both sides, every change is logged, and the tree can be printed as a traditional Chinese genealogy (vertical register, Su or Ou style, pagoda chart) or a Western Register / Pedigree, or exported as GEDCOM.

What are Qian generation names (zibei)?

Many Chinese lineages share a generation poem: each generation takes one character from it in their given names, so cousins of the same generation share a character. Different Qian branches use different poems — there can be dozens for one surname — so a poem from another branch cannot simply be borrowed.

The most reliable source is your branch's own genealogy; otherwise, collect names from elders, gravestones and ancestral halls, look for the shared character in each generation, and compare with genealogies from the same ancestral place.