Teng

Teng is a romanized form used in several languages to render different names and terms. In East Asian onomastics, Teng has appeared as a romanization of certain Chinese surnames in older Western systems; in modern pinyin these surnames are usually written as Deng. The surname may still be encountered as Teng in historical documents or in diaspora communities that preserve older spellings.

In Turkic and Mongolic linguistic and religious contexts, teng or tengri denotes heaven or sky and is associated with a supreme deity in traditional belief systems. The root teng functions as a semantic core for words meaning sky, heaven, or divine power, and it appears in various titles and proper names across Central Asia.

In contemporary usage, Teng can occur as a surname or given name in some communities, as well as part of compound names in cultures that borrow from Turkic or Chinese linguistic traditions. Spelling and pronunciation vary by language and historical period.

Related terms include Deng, the modern Mandarin form of the surname; and Tengri, the Turkic sky god whose name is sometimes shortened in literature to teng.