Meaning of Last Name

---- (Please note that "Yin" is usually a transliteration of a word from the Mandarin dialect — its cognate in another Chinese dialect may be pronounced differently, and thus spelled as Yuan for example. Also, the Yin surname as it is spelled in English, may refer to a number of different Chinese words/surnames pronounced yin, such as 殷 or 尹 — both are rare Chinese surnames.) ----