Common Chinese Surnames in Penang

Common Chinese Surnames in Penang

Here's a list of some of the more common Chinese surnames that you can find in Penang, along with the IPA symbols and audio when pronouncing the surnames in English. As you can see below, most surnames are pronounced in the fourth tone when spoken in English. Often the same surname in Chinese character may be spelled variously depending on whether the person is Hokkien, Cantonese, or is spelling his surname in Mandarin.

There is naturally more surnames than I have listed below. I often do not repeat surnames that are very closely related, i.e. Teo and Teoh. The audio provided is how you would pronounce these surname in English. You will notice that in English, all monosyllibic surnames take the fourth tone. This is the tone to use when referring to someone in English.

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Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.