Dí is the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

of the

Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the ...

(''Dí''). It was listed 108th among the

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

-era ''

Hundred Family Surnames The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dyn ...

''.

Romanization

狄 is often

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

as " Dee".

Distribution

Di no longer appears among the 100 most common names in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

or on

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. A 2013 study found it to be the 314th-most common name, being shared by 168,000 people or 0.013% of the population, with the province with the most being

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

. It is also quite uncommon in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

: there were fewer than 100 Dis during the 1990 census and while the number

in the year 2000 The following is a list of Sketch comedy, sketches performed on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' on NBC. ''Late Night'' sketches appearing on ''Tonight'' Moral Outrage In response to a recent news story, usually about misconduct, Conan speak ...

surpassed that it was still ranked 54,296th among the 150,000 or so listed surnames.

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

.
Genealogy Data: Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000
. 27 Sept 2011. Accessed 29 Mar 2012.

Origin

狄 is composed of the radicals for "animal" () and "fire" () and was used to describe barbarian tribes north of the original ''

zhongguo China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

''. Its

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

pronunciation has been reconstructed as ''*lˤek'' and its

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

one as ''Dek''.Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. '' '', p. 19. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.

People with the surname

Di Renjie Di Renjie (630 – November 11, 700), courtesy name Huaiying (懷英), formally Duke Wenhui of Liang (梁文惠公), was a Chinese politician of Tang and Wu Zhou dynasties, twice serving as chancellor during the reign of Wu Zetian. He was one of ...

, the Tang-dynasty official notable for serving Wu Zetian's Zhou state, better known as "

Judge Dee Judge Dee, or Judge Di, is a semi-fictional character based on the historical figure Di Renjie, county magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. The character appeared in the 18th-century Chinese detective and '' gong'an'' crime novel ''Di Gong ...

" *

Di Qing Di Qing (1008–1057), formerly romanized as Ti Ch'ing, was a Chinese military general of the Northern Song dynasty. Biography Di Qing was born to a poor family in Xihe, Fenzhou (汾州西河; present-day Fenyang, Shanxi). He sported tattoos ...

(狄青, 1008–1057), formerly romanized as Ti Ch'ing, was a military general of the Northern Song dynasty. *

Di Ying Di Ying (; born 21 April 1962) is a Taiwanese actress best known for her roles in ''Dou hua nu'' (1992) and ''Gatao 2: The New King'' (2018). Early life Di was born as Lin Miao-Hsi (林妙嬉) in Taiwan on April 21, 1962. Di's mother was an ...

(狄鶯; born 1962) is a Taiwanese actress (Di was originally the stage name of her father, whose birth name was 伊適杰)

Stagename

Tina Leung Tina Leung Kwok-hing (; died 31 March 2010), also known by her stage name of Tina Ti or Di Na (), was a Hong Kong actress. Her credits include ''A Big Mess'', ''One Day at a Time'', ''Dark Rendezvous'' and ''The Warlord''. Aside from acting, ...

Kwok-hing (Chinese: 梁幗馨; died 31 March 2010), also known by her stage name of Tina Ti or Di Na (Chinese: 狄娜), a Hong Kong actress

References