Yu (游 / 余 / 尤)
3 Taiwanese surnames carry the spelling Yu.
游 Yu
- Zhuyin
- ㄧㄡˊ
- Pinyin
- yóu
- Wade-Giles
- Yu
- Further spellings of 游
- You
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Iû
- Hakka (Sixian)
- iu¹¹
- Rank in Taiwan
- 35th most common surname, roughly 0.6% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
'To swim'; it also means 'to roam' (like 遊) and a stretch of a river (as in 上游 'upper reaches').
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to Prince Yan (公子偃) of the state of Zheng, a son of Duke Mu whose courtesy name was Ziyou (子游); his grandson adopted You as the family surname. Hall name (堂號): 廣平堂.
Saying it 我姓游 — wǒ xìng yóu (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄧㄡˊ), "my family name is 游"
余 Yü
- Zhuyin
- ㄩˊ
- Pinyin
- yú
- Wade-Giles
- Yü
- Further spellings of 余
- Yu
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Û
- Hakka (Sixian)
- i¹¹
- Rank in Taiwan
- 41st most common surname, roughly 0.51% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
In classical Chinese, 'I, me'; it is also used for 餘 'surplus'.
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to You Yu (由余), a minister of Duke Mu of Qin in the 7th century BCE, whose descendants took part of his name as their surname. Hall name (堂號): 下邳堂.
Saying it 我姓余 — wǒ xìng yú (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄩˊ), "my family name is 余"
尤 Yu
- Zhuyin
- ㄧㄡˊ
- Pinyin
- yóu
- Wade-Giles
- Yu
- Further spellings of 尤
- You
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Iû
- Hakka (Sixian)
- iu¹¹
- Rank in Taiwan
- 84th most common surname, roughly 0.14% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
'Especially' (as in 尤其); 'fault'; as a verb it means 'to blame'.
Where the surname comes from
It is generally traced to families surnamed 沈 in Fujian who, during the Five Dynasties, dropped its water radical to avoid the name of Wang Shenzhi (王審知), ruler of Min, because 審 and 沈 sounded alike. Hall name (堂號): 吳興堂.
Saying it 我姓尤 — wǒ xìng yóu (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄧㄡˊ), "my family name is 尤"
Sources: rank and share, 內政部 全國姓名統計分析 (Ministry of the Interior, National Name Statistics), data as of 2023-06-30. Taiwanese Hokkien readings, 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi), 百家姓 appendix. Hakka, 教育部臺灣客語辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka), 百家姓表, Sixian (四縣腔).