Anybody know the origin of the family name Yan?

My middle name is Yan and it came from my deceased grandfather who came from the Canton part of China. I've searched so many websites yet I could only find that the name changed several times and got me confused to a point.

Anybody know the origin of the family name Yan?
Yan was a very short lived kingdom in the vicinity of present-day Beijing at the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, which is traditionally dated as being from 907 to 960. Yan only lasted for two years, from 911 to 913.





it is also a state of china.





Cantonese transcription of Chinese surname 鐢? Created for Naming taboo. Emperor Ming of Han has a given name of Zhuang, and he renamed the Zhuang surname to Yan.





The Yan Emperor, a close kin of the Yellow Emperor.
Reply:http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Yan-name-m...


As a last name: Last Name


Yan


1. Chinese : of uncertain origin, originating in Shaanxi province. It may be a variant of another name from the same region and pronounced the same way (see 4 below, ).


2. Chinese : the origin of this name is closely tied up with that of Zhuang. During the Spring and Autumn period (722鈥搕o 481 BC), many members of the ruling class of the state of Chu adopted as their surname Zhuang, the posthumously given name of a king of Chu. The name Zhuang was kept until the Eastern Han dynasty (25 to鈥?20 AD), when, to avoid a taboo on having the same name as the ruler (then Liu Zhuang), many people changed their surname from Zhuang to Yan.


3.Chinese : from the 鈥榮tyle name鈥?Yan. Yi Fu, a descendant of the grantee of the fief of Zhu (see Zhu 1) during the Zhou dynasty had the 鈥榮tyle name鈥?Yan. Descendants adopted his style name as their surname.


4 Chinese : there are two accounts of the origin of this name: one a place named Yan Village and the other Yan Town. Both places existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122 to鈥?21 BC).


5.Chinese : variant of Zhen.


6.Chinese : from the name of a person called Yan An from the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period (722 to 鈥?81 BC).


7. Chinese : variant of Yin 1.


8.Chinese : from the name of a state of Yan that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122 to 鈥?21 BC).


9. Americanized spelling of Jan. (so, I guess if I went to China, they'd call me YAN,too ??)





http://www.behindthename.com/name/yan


A non-Asian form is YAN :


Gender: Masculine


Usage: Bulgarian


Bulgarian form of Ioannes (see JOHN)





JOHN


Gender: Masculine


Usage: English, Biblical


Pronounced: JAHN


English form of Iohannes, which was the Latin form of the Greek name (Ioannes), itself derived from the Hebrew name 讬(Yochanan) meaning "YAHWEH (or God) is gracious". This name owes its consistent popularity to two New Testament characters, both highly revered as saints. The first was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ and a victim of beheading by Herod Antipas. The second was the apostle John, also supposedly the author of the fourth Gospel and Revelation.


The name has been borne by 21 popes and eight Byzantine emperors, as well as kings of England, France, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Hungary. It was also borne by the poet John Milton and the philosopher John Locke