Often surname originated in western shandong, initially, often last name is as the main breeding center here.

At the end of the warring states period, often is main then multiply this southern henan, hebei and other places, and has set up a diaspora this north and south.

Early han has a surname often move in shanxi, taiyuan formation in county as the center of a large family.At the same time, western shandong often surname originated form a big family.

The han to the three countries, often family name there is a move in sichuan province.Wei jin southern and northern dynasties, there are often is in gansu province.Sui and tang dynasties, xinfeng (now shaanxi lintong county) people often neither moved to fujian.

In song dynasty, and often name has throughout the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river region in our country, and there are often moved to fujian, guangdong, finally arrived in yunnan, guizhou and other places.To the Ming and qing dynasties, often is already widespread in most areas in China.

After the qing dynasty, and part of the manchu into often last name.

From generations of breeding migration, often the surname in the north of shanxi, shandong, henan, shaanxi, hebei, gansu's most widely distributed, jiangsu, sichuan, zhejiang.