Lưu or Luu without diacritics is a Vietnamese surname. It is also the Vietnamese transliteration of the Chinese surname

Liu / ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text ...

( 劉). During the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Han dynasty#Eastern Han, Eastern Han dynasty and wa ...

era (3rd century AD), a number of Luu/Liu (劉) families immigrated to Vietnam. During the

Shu Han Han (; 221–263), known in historiography as Shu Han ( ) or Ji Han ( "Junior Han"), or often shortened to Shu (; pinyin: ''shŭ'' <

Liu (Luu) Bei's descendants left their capital

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

. After losing the

Cao Wei Wei ( Hanzi: 魏; pinyin: ''Wèi'' <

Middle Chinese

: *''ŋjwei^C'' <

dynasty, many royals and peasants alike headed south and eventually escaped to Vietnam. During the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

(1279-1368), Yao people who included the surname Liu (劉) and H'mong-Mien Lìu, migrated from

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

to escape pressure from invading Mongols and ethnic Chinese. Yet from the same period,

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

also used the surname Liu in Vietnam. Vietnam has endured centuries of constant occupation throughout history. With the Vietnamese people's resistance to various regimes, Luu took on a new specific meaning synonymous to war spikes, sharpened bamboo traps more commonly known as

punji sticks The punji stick or punji stake is a type of booby trapped stake. It is a simple spike, made out of wood or bamboo, which is sharpened, heated, and usually set in a hole. Punji sticks are usually deployed in substantial numbers. The ''Oxford Englis ...

. These the Vietnamese people would construct and employ to combat unsuspecting enemy forces moving through the jungle landscape--most famously documented in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. According to folk-story "Hùng Vương Ngọc Phả" (Family tree of Hung King) one of 50 sons of Kinh Dương Vương there was Lưu Lang, who joined with Mother Âu Cơ and settled to northern mountain Duyen Hung area of Van Lang. Luu Lang is considered the ancestor of all 12 Vietnamese/Kinh people who possessed the surname Luu. In another folktale "Sự tích trầu cau", a legend about areca nuts and betel leaves, a landlord with the surname Luu is mentioned. The offering of areca nuts and betel leaves to the ancestors is a Vietnamese wedding ritual. It's also an ancient legendary story only. Another major immigration period is in 1949 when the communist took over China and many loyal nationalists of the Republic of China left for Vietnam. Prior to the French occupation, Vietnamese writing was in

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

and Luu was written as 劉. After the French occupation, alphabets were introduced and Liu (劉) surnames were spelt as Luu. In 1919, the French government abandoned the use of

Chữ Hán Chữ Hán (𡨸漢, literally "Chinese characters", ), Chữ Nho (𡨸儒, literally "Confucian characters", ) or Hán tự (漢字, ), is the Vietnamese term for Chinese characters, used to write Văn ngôn (which is a form of Classical Chinese ...

and forced the Vietnamese to strictly use Portuguese's alphabet spelling system. Many descendants of Luu who speak Chinese would spell Luu in English and write 劉 as their Chinese surname.

Notable people with the surname Lưu

Lưu (劉) family Vietnamese Five Colours Flag

* (chữ Hán: {{lang, vi-Hani, 劉基), one of "four important people" under Đinh Dynasty of Emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh. Lưu Cơ was the first mayor of Đại La city (modern Hanoi) nominated directly by Đinh Tiên Hoàng after Vietnam regained independence from China. *

Lưu Quang Vũ Lưu Quang Vũ (17 April 1948 – 29 August 1988) was a Vietnamese playwright and poet. His wife Xuân Quỳnh was a Vietnamese poet. Both parents and their 12-year-old son Lưu Quỳnh Thơ were killed in a traffic collision in 1988. In 200 ...

, Vietnamese playwright, poet and writer *

Đinh Xuân Lưu Dinh Xuan Luu is a Vietnamese Ambassador, he was the Ambassador to Poland of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the early 2000s. From 2009 he was an ambassador in Israel. He is married to Truong Phuong Hong. Ambassador to Israel Luu is today ...

, Vietnamese ambassador to Poland and Israel * Janette Luu, Vietnamese-American broadcaster *

Lưu Hữu Phước Lưu Hữu Phước (12 September 1921 in Cần Thơ, Cochinchina – 8 June 1989 in Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam) was a Vietnamese composer, a member of the National Assembly, and Chairman of the Committee of Culture and Education of the National ...

, Vietnamese composer *

Lưu Huỳnh Lưu Huỳnh (born Saigon) is a Vietnam-born Vietnamese American film director. His family arrived in America when he was 16 years old. He worked as a director for the Vietnamese diaspora variety show '' Paris By Night'', which is banned in Vietn ...

, Vietnamese American film director *

Luu Meng Luu Meng ( km, លូ ម៉េង; born on 7 February 1974) is a Chinese Cambodian chef, culinary author and hospitality entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Almond Group, director of Thalias Group, president of the Cambodia Tourism Federation, presid ...

, Chinese Cambodian chef, culinary author and hospitality entrepreneur *

Lưu Trọng Lư Lưu Trọng Lư (19 June 1912 – 10 August 1991) is a Vietnamese poet, writer, play writer. He was born in 1912 at Cao Lao Hạ village, Bố Trạch District, Quảng Bình Province, North Central Coast, Vietnam. He attended Quốc học Hu ...

, Vietnamese poet, writer, play writer *

Thang Luu Thang Luu is a Vietnamese American professional poker player who won the 2008 World Series of Poker $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event and repeated as champion in the same event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. He finished runner-up ...

, Vietnamese American professional poker *

Jane Luu Jane X. Luu ( vi, ; born July 1963) is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize (shared with David C. Jewitt and Michael Brown) for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt ...

(born 1963), Vietnamese American astronomer Vietnamese-language surnames