While Huáng is the pinyin romanization of the word, it may also be romanized as Hwang, Wong, Waan, Wan, Waon, Hwong, Vong, Hung, Hong, Bong, Eng, Ng, Uy, Wee, Oi, Oei, Oey, Ooi, Ong, or Ung due to pronunciations of the word in different dialects and languages.

They were one of the Four Barbarians in Chinese culture, along with the Northern Di 北狄, the Southern Man 南蠻, and the Western Rong 西戎.

Bo Yi married Emperor Shun's youngest daughter and had three sons (some accounts mentioned only two sons – Da Lian and Ruo Mu): Xia Yu awarded the Huang kingdom to Da Lian, and his descendants are known as the Huangs.

There are total of 14 clans derived from Bo Yi Ying Clan: Lian (廉), Xu (徐), Jiang (江), Qin (秦), Zhao (趙), Huang (黃), Liang (梁), Ma (馬), Ge (葛), Gu (谷), Miao (繆), Zhong (鍾), Fei (費), and Qu (瞿).

The lineage of Huang Clan from the Yellow Emperor is as follows: 1) Yellow Emperor 黃帝 -> 2) Chang Yi 昌意 -> 3) Zhuanxu Emperor 顓頊帝 -> 4) Da Ye 大業 (aka Ye the Great) -> 5) Shao Dian 少典 -> 6) Nu Shen 女莘 -> 7) Da Fei 大費 (aka Fei the Great) -> 8) Juan Zhang 卷章 -> 9) Wu Hui 吳回 (also known as Zhurong) -> 10) Lu Zhong 陸終 -> 11) Hui Lian 惠連 (Some accounts state that Hui Lian is son of Fan Ren, son of Lu Zhong).

Lu Zhong had six sons: In 2220 BC during the reign of Emperor Yao 帝堯, Hui Lian 惠連 scored merits in harnessing river floods.

Emperor Yao conferred on Hui Lian the title of Viscount 子 (but the nobility system of ancient China is still not clear) and the state of Can'hu 參胡 (in present-day region of Fenyang, Shanxi province).

Another lineage of Huang Clan from the Yellow Emperor is as follows: 1) Yellow Emperor 黃帝 -> 2) Shao Hao 少昊 -> 3) Jiao Ji 嬌極 -> 4) Hui Gong 揮公 -> 5) Mei 昧 -> 6) Tai Tai 臺駘.

According to Min Shu 閩書 (Book of Min) (Quoted from Chung Yoon-Ngan): "During the second year (of the reign) of Yongjia (308AD) the Central Plain was in chaos and the eight clans:- Lin 林, Huang 黃, Chen 陳, Zheng 鄭, Zhan 詹, Qiu 邱, He 何, and Hu 胡, entered Min 閩 (present day Fujian province, China)."

From the Tang dynasty (618–907) onwards, many Han Chinese migrated from Fujian to Guangdong and the other southern provinces.

Huang migration overseas began as early as the 14th century during the Ming dynasty to destinations in Southeast Asia.

The surname 皇 has several origins: Across Guangdong, three million people surnamed Huang claim descent from the same paternal ancestor, Huang Qiaoshan who lived in the Tang dynasty and migrated to Fujian at the end of the dynasty, via three of his sons (out of 21) who founded different branches, found among the Hakka, Chaoshan and Cantonese.