Cha (Korean surname)

Cha

Language(s)	Korean
Origin
Meaning	Chariot
Region of origin	Korean peninsula
Other names
Variant form(s)	Che (Chinese)

Cha
Hangul	차
Hanja	車
Revised Romanization	Cha
McCune–Reischauer	Ch'a

The origin of the Cha (車) surname is that the 13th-generation descendant of the Xi (姒) clan, Xi Shengye (姒辛甲), moved from China to the ancient state of Joseon (古朝鮮) and lived beneath the Iltoosan (一土山) mountain in Pyongyang (平壤). He changed his surname to Wang (王) and his descendants later changed their surnames to Jeon (田) and Sin (申), before eventually adopting the name Cha Muil (車無一), which is how the Cha (車) surname came to be.

Notable people with the surname

• Cha Bum-kun (born 1953), South Korean football manager
• Cha Bumseok (1924–2006), South Korean playwright and director
• Cha Chol-ma (born 1956), North Korean businessman
• Cha Chung-hwa (born 1980), South Korean actress
• Cha Do-jin (born 1983), South Korean actor
• Cha Dong-min (born 1986), South Korean retired taekwondo practitioner
• Cha Du-ri (born 1980), German-born South Korean footballer
• Cha Eun-woo (born 1997), South Korean singer and actor, member of boy band Astro
• Cha Gi-suk (1986-2021), South Korean footballer
• Cha Kwi-hyun (born 1975), South Korean footballer
• Cha Han-sik (born 1965), South Korean runner
• N (singer) (born Cha Hak-yeon, 1990), South Korean singer, member of boy band VIXX
• Cha Hong (born 1981), South Korean hairdresser
• Cha Hui-rim (born 1953), North Korean politician
• Cha Hun (born 1994), South Korean singer and actor, member of band N.Flying
• Cha Hwa-yeon (born 1960), South Korean actress
• Cha Hyon-hyang (born 1979), South Korean judoka
• Cha Hyo-sim (born 1994), North Korean table tennis player
• Yuri (Korean singer) (born Cha Hyun-ok, 1976), South Korean singer
• Cha Hyung-won (1890-1972), South Korean living national treasure
• Cha In-pyo (born 1967), South Korean actor
• Cha Jin-ho, South Korean wheelchair curler
• Cha Jun-hwan (born 2001), South Korean figure skater
• Cha Seung-won (born 1970), South Korean actor
• Baro (entertainer) (born Cha Sun-woo, 1992), South Korean entertainer, member of boy band B1A4
• Cha Tae-hyun (born 1976), South Korean actor
• Steph Cha (born 1986), Korean American novelist and fiction writer
• Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951–1982), South Korean novelist
• Victor Cha (born 1960), American political scientist
• Virginia Cha, Korean American news anchor

See also

• All pages with titles beginning with Cha
• All pages with titles containing Cha
• Chal (name)
• Char (name)

References

• Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

• A 2001 Korea Now article explaining the clan structure