Yǐn (surname)
Chinese family name (尹)
Yin (Chinese: 尹; pinyin: Yǐn; Jyutping: Wan5; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ún / Ín) is a Chinese surname. In 800 BCE, Bo Jifu, a renowned judge during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, held the position of Yin (equivalent to First Minister or most favored Minister) and changed his name to Yin Jifu. During the era of the Imperial Examination System, three other magistrates took on the surname Yǐn (尹) to denote their Imperial rank and favoured status. It is the 100th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.
The Korean surname Yun and the Vietnamese surname Doãn are derived from Yin and traditionally written in the same Chinese character.
A 2013 study found it to be the 79th most common surname, being shared by 3,460,000 people or 0.260% of the population, with the province with the most being Hunan.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Yǐn (surname)” is chinese family name (尹). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through surname, Chinese and family, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “chinese family name (尹)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q717555. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Yǐn (surname)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Yǐn (surname) primary sources, Yǐn (surname) archive and surname research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Yǐn (surname)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.