Seah

Seah is a surname and, less commonly, a given name used in various cultures. It is particularly associated with Chinese diaspora communities in Southeast Asia, most notably Singapore and Malaysia, where it appears as a romanization in English-language records. The spelling Seah can reflect the pronunciation of several Chinese surnames in local dialects such as Hokkien and Teochew; as families migrated and adopted official records in English, different families with similar pronunciations have produced different transliterations, including Seah, See, or Seh in some cases. Because the Chinese characters behind the surname can differ by lineage, there is no single character associated with the Seah spelling.

In terms of distribution, the Seah surname is most commonly found among people of Chinese descent in Singapore and Malaysia, with smaller populations in Indonesia, the Philippines, and diasporic communities around the world. The name is carried by individuals across a range of fields, including business, academia, the arts, and sports, reflecting the diverse experiences of Chinese communities in the region.

Besides its use as a surname, Seah may appear in other contexts such as place names or organization titles in different languages, but those uses are distinct from the surname and not connected to a single origin. The article on Seah serves to outline its general use as a family name and its linguistic background rather than to catalog specific individuals.