Zhou
周 — Zhōu
The 10th most common surname in China
Tenth most common surname in mainland China (Ministry of Public Security 2019 National Name Report, CGTN, 21 January 2020); a 2013 study found 25,200,000 bearers, 1.9% of the population.
Where the name comes from
The surname is the dynasty's own name, taken up by its losers rather than its rulers: the Zhou royal house was surnamed Ji (姬), not Zhou. When Qin destroyed the Zhou in 256 BC, the displaced royal descendants — among them the line of King Ping of Zhou settled at Rufen — adopted Zhou as a family name in memory of their ancestors. A later branch was created under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, when people surnamed Ji changed to Zhou to avoid a naming taboo, and in the late Yuan a Su family did the same.
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 周.
- ZhouMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- ChowCantonese — Guangdong and Hong Kong
- ChauCantonese — Hong Kong
- ChaoMacau
- Chew / ChiuHokkien and Teochew
- ChouMandarin, Wade–Giles spelling — Taiwan
- Tjio / Tjioe / Djioe / CiuDutch-based spellings — Indonesia
The character
Outside a name, 周 is an ordinary word meaning week.
- Strokes
- 8
- Radical
- 口
- As a word
- zhōu
Words built from 周
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.