Orient Name
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颜 Yan — a rarer surname
62.6 / 100 overall fit
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| Pinyin | Yan |
|---|
| Strokes | 15 |
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| Commonness | outside the top 100 |
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| Type | single-character |
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Where the surname comes from
A surname from the ancient state of Yan, associated with the great calligrapher Yan Zhenqing.
What the character means
Graceful beauty and charm
Why it scores this way
Easy to say96
Reads the way it looks for an English speaker — no sounds English doesn't have.
Recognised in China40
Outside the top 100 — distinctive, but some people will ask you to repeat or write it.
Easy to write45
15 strokes — more than most; it will take real practice to write smoothly.
People who carried this name
- Yan Zhenqing — Tang dynasty calligrapher (709–785), master of the 'Yan' style of regular script.
- Yan Hui — Favorite disciple of Confucius, revered as 'Foremost Sage' for his virtue, wisdom, and devotion to moral cultivation.
- Yan Zhitui — Author of the Yan Family Instructions, a celebrated work on ethics, education, and family discipline in the Northern Qi dynasty.
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Other surnames with the same feel
中文版