Where the name comes from
Xu comes from the state of Xu, in what is now Jian'an District of Xuchang City in Henan. Its ruling line was of the Jiang (姜) surname, reckoned descendants of Boyi and of Shennong; Chinese sources name Xu Wenshu (許文叔), enfeoffed there as a lord by King Cheng of Zhou. A rival tradition attaches the name instead to Xu You, a sage of the time of the legendary Emperor Yao.
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 许.
- XuMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- Hui / HoiCantonese — Hong Kong and Macau
- Kho / KoHokkien — Singapore
- Khaw / KhohTeochew
- KooHakka
- HeoKorean (허)
The character
Outside a name, 许 is an ordinary word meaning to allow.
- Strokes
- 6
- Radical
- 讠
- Traditional
- 許
Words built from 许
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.
Other surnames read “Xu”
Romanised the same way, but a different character and a different family.