Cui
崔 — Cuī
The 55th most common surname in China
About 5.09 million people, 0.38% of the population, ranked 56th, most numerous in Shandong (Yuan Yida and Qiu Jiaru, survey of China's 400 largest surnames, Fuxi Institution, 2013); 55th most common surname in mainland China in the Ministry of Public Security's 2019 national name report. In South Korea the same character is the surname Choi, borne by about 2.4 million people, some 4.7% of the population (2013).
Where the name comes from
From an act of renunciation in the state of Qi. Jizi (季子), a grandson of Jiang Ziya and the heir apparent, gave up his claim to the throne in favour of his younger brother Shuyi (叔乙) and withdrew to the estate of Cui (崔邑), in what is now Zhangqiu, Shandong. His descendants took the estate's name as their surname.
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 崔.
- CuiMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- ChuiCantonese — Hong Kong, Macau (government romanisation)
- ChoiCantonese — Macau and Malaysia; also Korean (최)
- ChweeHokkien / Min Nan
- ChooiHakka
- ThôiSino-Vietnamese — Vietnam
- TsoiCyrillic transcription — Korean communities of the former Soviet Union
The character
Outside a name, 崔 is an ordinary word meaning high, lofty, towering.
- Strokes
- 11
- Radical
- 山
- As a word
- cuī