Gan / Kan
Gan is a Chinese surname, ranked 245th in the Song edition of the Hundred Family Surnames. It is found among more than ten ethnic groups, including the Han, Zhuang, and Manchu, and is mainly distributed in Shandong, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong.
The Gan surname has branches originating from the Si, Zi, and Ji surnames, as well as from fief names, a state name, an ancestor's personal name, and sinicized minority groups.
Gan surname commanderies include Bohai and Danyang; its hall names include Jiuxue Hall and Wucheng Hall.
Before the Qin dynasty, Gan families were distributed across present-day Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Anhui. During the Qin and Han periods they spread to northern China as well as Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Chongqing; during the Five Dynasties and Song periods they entered Fujian and Guangdong, and during the Ming and Qing periods continued moving into northwest and northeast China, Taiwan, Chongqing, and Sichuan.
Historical figures with the Gan surname include the Shang minister Gan Pan, the Warring States astronomer Gan De, the Qin chancellor Gan Mao and Gan Luo, the Eastern Han envoy Gan Ying, and the Three Kingdoms general Gan Ning.
Gan genealogies are recorded in Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong. The generation sequence of the Gan lineage in Zhijiang, Hubei, is “可以继续长发祥.”
Modern Gan lineages often regard Gan Pan as the founding ancestor of the surname, but Gan may also have originated from the Zhou capital-region fief of Gan, place names such as Ganshan, Ganxi, Ganling, and Ganzhou, or minority surname changes.
Start with ancestral counties, villages, personal names and dates. Record genealogy titles, volumes, editions and catalog identifiers. A shared surname does not prove a shared lineage; compare branch records.
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