Ye
叶 · traditionally 葉 — Yè
The 43rd most common surname in China
5.8 million bearers, the 43rd most common surname in China as of 2008 and 2019 (English Wikipedia, "Ye (surname)", accessed September 2026). It is listed 257th in the Song-dynasty Hundred Family Surnames.
Where the name comes from
The surname comes from the city of Ye, in what is now Ye County, Henan. Around 500 BC King Zhao of Chu granted Ye to Shen Zhuliang, a general and prime minister from a cadet branch of the Chu ruling house, who thereafter was known as the Duke of Ye (葉公). His descendants took the fief's name as their surname, making Shen Zhuliang the founding ancestor.
The same name, spelled differently
A Chinese surname is a character, not a spelling. The Latin letters on a passport come from whichever dialect the name was written down from — so these are all 叶.
- YeMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- Yip / IpCantonese — Hong Kong, Macau
- Yap / IapHokkien and Teochew — Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia
- YappHakka
- DiệpVietnamese
- Japri / YapardiIndonesian-adapted forms
The character
Outside a name, 叶 is an ordinary word meaning to be in harmony.
- Strokes
- 5
- Radical
- 口
- Traditional
- 葉
- As a word
- xié
Words built from 叶
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.