Zou
邹 · traditionally 鄒 — Zōu
The 68th most common surname in China
About 3.6 million bearers, 70th nationally (Ministry of Public Security ID-card database, 2008 ranking of China's 300 commonest surnames); 68th on the Ministry's 2019 top-100 ranking, published January 2020.
Where the name comes from
The name comes from a small Zhou vassal state in southwestern Shandong, centred on modern Zoucheng. It was originally called Zhu (邾) or Zhulou (邾娄), ruled by the Cao (曹) clan under Lu, and was renamed Zou during the reign of Duke Mu of Lu (417–377 BC); Chu annexed it under King Xuan (r. 369–340 BC) and its people took the state's name as a surname. A second line is from the Zi clan of Song: Zhengkaofu held Zou as his fief, and his descendants also took the name.
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 邹.
- ZouMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- Chow / ChauCantonese — Hong Kong and the Canadian and American diaspora
- TjeuwChinese-Indonesian
- TrâuVietnamese
- TsouWade-Giles — Taiwan
The character
邹 is used almost only as a name — it carries no everyday meaning of its own.
- Strokes
- 7
- Radical
- 阝
- Traditional
- 鄒
- As a word
- zōu