Is 鏰 commonly used in names?

No, 鏰 is rarely used in personal names due to its informal and monetary connotations. It is primarily a colloquial term for currency.

What is the origin of 鏰?

鏰 is a relatively modern character created for colloquial speech, derived from the phonetic component 崩 and the semantic component 金 (metal/money).

鏰 is slang for a unit of currency (like 'buck'), while 元 is the formal term for yuan. 鏰 is informal and dialectal, whereas 元 is standard.

鏰Tone 4

bèng ｜ 19 strokes ｜ radical:

beng — an informal unit of currency, slang for a dollar or yuan;

used in colloquial speech to refer to money.

beng — an informal unit of currency, slangused in colloquial speech to refer to money.

one bengten benga few bengearn bengspend bengbeng coin

鏰 is a colloquial term for a basic unit of currency, similar to 'buck' in English.
It is used in informal contexts, particularly in northern Chinese dialects.
The character is relatively modern and not commonly found in classical texts.