Where the name comes from
The name began as 丘. English Wikipedia's main line traces it to Jiang Ziya, the adviser who helped King Wu of Zhou overthrow the Shang in 1046 BC; his clan later settled in Fufeng County, Shaanxi and took the name of the then-capital, Qiu, as their surname. Other lines descend from Qiu Ruo, an official of the state of Zhu, and from the family of Zuo Qiuming, who lived at Zuo Qiu (now Dingtao, Shandong). The written character changed under the Qing: in 1725 the Yongzheng Emperor ordered the clan to add the 邑 radical, giving 邱, so the surname would no longer duplicate Confucius's personal name (孔丘) — a change Hokkien families largely accepted while Hakka families generally refused, with some reverting to 丘 after 1912.
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 邱.
- QiuMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- YauCantonese — Hong Kong
- KhooHokkien and Teochew — Singapore, Malaysia, Penang
- KhuHokkien and Teochew — Malaysia
- KhoHokkien and Teochew
- KooHokkien and Teochew
- KhoeHokkien and Teochew
The character
Outside a name, 邱 is an ordinary word meaning mound, hill; grave.
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 阝
- As a word
- qiū