Han
A surname that can be a short form of longer names or a rare East Asian family name, depending on the family line.
The #1,182 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,344 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical English evidence here is thin and messy: one 19th-century source links Han to clipped or altered local surnames ending in -ham or -nham, but that is only a suggestion, not a firm derivation. In English records, Han may also appear as a shortened or reduced form of longer surnames or given-name-based forms. Separately, Han is also a well-known Chinese surname, from the Mandarin romanization of several unrelated Chinese characters, so the same spelling can have different origins in different families.
History
Older English surname books occasionally treat Han as a shortened surname form found in local-name families, but they do not give a single secure origin. In modern use, many bearers of Han in the English-speaking world have East Asian ancestry, especially Chinese, which reflects independent surname traditions rather than one shared source. Because the spelling is short and cross-cultural, family history is essential for deciding which line applies.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same three-letter surname can come from very different traditions, so two people named Han may have entirely unrelated family histories.
From the historical record
“HAN A foolish tradition places the emigration of Hauiblodon from England to Scotland a century later, temp. Edw. II., and connects it with his having taken part witli the mur- derers of that King's favourite, Spenser. Compelled b}'' the monai'ch's resentment to leave England, and being closely piu'sued into a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Han
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.