Meaning of Last Name

Teng can refer to two distinct Chinese surnames. Most commonly, it is an alternate spelling of the Chinese surname Deng (鄧/邓, Dèng) used especially in Taiwan based on the Wade-Giles transliteration of Mandarin Chinese. This spelling is used in many English language sources on China written before the widespread adoption of the pinyin transliteration system in the 1980s. For example, Deng Xiaoping was written "Teng Hsiao-p'ing." However, Teng (滕, Téng) is also a different and much rarer Chinese surname derived from State of Teng in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is Tàhng in Cantonese and is usually Romanized as "Tang" in Hong Kong. It is Têng in Minnan (Hokkien).