Where the name comes from
Four separate derivations are recorded. It comes from Wu Luo (武羅), named as either a prehistoric state or an official of the Xia dynasty; from the posthumous title of Duke Wu of Song (r. 765–748 BCE); from the posthumous name of Wu Ding, king of the Shang around 1200 BCE; and from the personal name of a son of King Ping of Zhou — Chinese sources record that the boy was born with a mark on his hand resembling the character 武, which was then taken as the clan 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 武.
- WuMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- MoCantonese — Hong Kong
- Vũ / VõVietnamese
The character
Outside a name, 武 is an ordinary word meaning martial.
- Strokes
- 8
- Radical
- 止
Words built from 武
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.
Other surnames read “Wu”
Romanised the same way, but a different character and a different family.