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Li (surname 李)
Chinese surname / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Li or Lee ([lì]; Chinese: 李; pinyin: Lǐ) is a common Chinese surname, it is the 4th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames.[1] Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China,[2] and more than 100 million in Asia.[3] It is the second-most common surname in China as of 2018,[2][4] the second-most common surname in Hong Kong, the most common surname in Macau and the 5th most common surname in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Lee". The surname is pronounced as [lej˩˧] (Jyutping: Lei5) in Cantonese, Lí (poj) in Taiwanese Hokkien, but is often spelled as "Lee" in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand and many overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as "Lei". In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as "Lie".[5] The common Korean surname, "Lee" (also romanized as "I", "Yi", "Ri", or "Rhee"), and the Vietnamese surname, "Lý", are both derived from Li and written with the same Chinese character (李).[6] The character also means "plum" or "plum tree".
![]() The Chinese character for Li(Lee) | |
Pronunciation | Lǐ (Mandarin Pinyin) Lei5 (Cantonese Jyutping) Lí (Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī) |
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Language(s) | Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese |
Origin | |
Language(s) | Old Chinese |
Meaning | Plum, plum tree |
Other names | |
Variant form(s) | Lee, Lei |
Derivative(s) | Lee/이 (Korean) Lee/หลี่ (Thai) Ly/Lý (Vietnamese) |