Chang
A surname with several independent origins, most commonly East Asian, but also found in older European and other contexts.
The #391 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 3,768 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Chang is not a single-origin surname. In Chinese, it commonly reflects romanizations of several different surnames, especially 張/张 (zhāng, "to stretch; bow") and 常 (cháng, "constant"). In Korean, Chang is a standard romanization of 장 (Jang), which can represent several hanja-based family names. The form also appears in European historical records as a word or name element, but the excerpts supplied do not establish a single surname etymology for English-speaking families named Chang.
History
In the United States today, Chang is especially common among families of Chinese and Korean background, reflecting modern immigration and varied romanization systems. Because the spelling can represent different surnames in different languages, one bearer of Chang may have a completely different family history from another. The historical excerpts provided mention the string "Chang" incidentally, but do not give a reliable dictionary derivation for this surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Latin-letter spelling Chang can correspond to several different surnames in East Asian languages, so genealogy records often need clan, language, or place clues to tell them apart.
From the historical record
“IMbb, DibbB, Dibson.— (i) Bapt. <the son of Theobald,' from the nick. Tebb or Tibb, chang^ to Dibby of which the patronsrmic is Dibbs; v. Dibble, (a) Bapt. <the son of Isabella/ from the nick. Tibb (v. Tebb) with a similar change of initial. Dibb is a com-”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)