Shěn

沈 is romanised as Sum, Sem, Sam, or Shum in Cantonese; Sim in Hokkien; Shim in Hakka; Shim, Sim, and Sheem (심) in Korean; and Thẩm in Vietnamese.

Less commonly, the same character can also be pronounced Zhen, which indicates a different origin from Shen.[1]

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 [2]. 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. [3] 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.[4]

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.[5][6]

Although Chinese make up the largest part of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population,[7] 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.[8] In the 1990 US census however, "shen" ranked #10,565, "shum" ranked #22,632, "shim" ranked #9771, "tham" ranked #28,237. [9]

Since the Northern Song Dynasty (960AD), 沈 has always been ranked above the top 60 surnames in China. [10]

As is common with Chinese surnames, the modern Shen family arose from various unrelated sources.

One origin traces it to the Shen (沈) 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 (芈) family of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period. Chu had conquered the area of Shen and, in 506 BC, its governor was Shenyin Shu – a Chu field marshal from a cadet branch of the royal house. He was killed in the Battle of Boju that year,[11][12] 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 (葉公, Ye Gong).[13]

The You clan (尤) 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 (审) ruling family in Fujian Province.[1] 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 (氵: shuǐ) plus (冘: yín) results in the Chinese character surname (沈: shěn).

Shen Kuo (沈括)

• Shen Kuo (沈括), Ancient Polymathic Scientist
• Shen Yue (沈約), A poet, statesman, and historian
• Shen Zhou (沈周), A Chinese painter in the Ming dynasty
• Shen Faxing (沈法興), An official of the Chinese Sui dynasty
• Shen Lun (沈倫), a scholar-official
• Shen Wansan (沈万三), A businessman during the beginning of Ming Dynasty
• Michael Shen Fu-Tsung (沈福宗), First Qing Chinese to have visited Europe
• Shen Wuhua (沈婺華), An empress of Chen China
• Shen Miaorong (沈妙容), An empress of the Chinese Chen Dynasty
• Shen Quan (沈铨), a Chinese painter during the Qing Dynasty
• Shen Guangwen (沈光文), a scholar, poet, educator
• Shen Baozhen (沈葆禎), a Chinese official during the Qing dynasty
• Shen Song (沈崧), a chancellor of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Wuyue
• Shen Shou (沈壽), a Chinese embroiderer during the late Qing and early Republican period
• Shen Zemin (沈泽民), one of the earliest members of the Communist Party of China
• James Shen (沈劍虹), a Taiwanese diplomat
• Shen Hongying (沈鸿英), was a Chinese general & military governor of Guangdong
• Shen Chunhe (沈春和), a Qing dynasty Chinese xiangsheng performer