xiǎn
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 surname Xian

Examples

Xiǎn fūrén shì liù shìjì āndìng Lǐngnán de jīnguó yīngxióng.
Lady Xian was a sixth-century heroine who helped keep peace in Lingnan.

Tips

history
is used almost only as a surname in modern Chinese, common in Guangdong. Its best-known bearers are the Southern dynasties heroine 夫人 and the composer 星海, who wrote the Yellow River Cantata.
register
Surname only; it carries no separate common-word meaning today. Do not confuse it with the look-alike (to wash).

Components

radical
bīng
ice
is the two-stroke ice radical. It indexes the character but carries little meaning in this surname; the form distinguishes from the three-drop .
phonetic
xiān
first; earlier
supplies the sound, drifted to xiǎn. The same phonetic appears in (to wash) and (to choose).

Stroke Order

xiǎn