{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Lưu or Luu without diacritics is a Vietnamese surname. It is also the

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

and Khmer 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 Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the West ...

三國 era (3rd century AD), a number of Luu/Liu (劉) families immigrated to Vietnam. During the Shu Han 蜀漢 dynasty, for example, Emperor Liu (Luu) Bei's 劉備descendants left their capital

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese pro ...

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'' <

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 fift ...

(1279-1368),

Yao people The Yao people (its majority branch is also known as Mien; ; vi, người Dao) is a government classification for various minorities in China and Vietnam. They are one of the 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities in China and reside in t ...

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 to

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. 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 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 Vietnam a ...

. 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 mounta in 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 Chinese characters 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

Luu Co (chữ Hán: 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 Văn Lợi, lawyer, former chief of Department for Border Department of SRV Government. * Lưu Quang Vũ, Vietnamese playwright, poet and writer * Đinh Xuân Lưu, Vietnamese Ambassador to Poland and Israel *

Janette Luu Janette N. Luu (born March 18, 1976) is a Vietnamese-American broadcaster. Until October 2009, she hosted '' CANOE Live'', a local TV program on Sun TV in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as Toronto's first-ever Vietnamese TV news anchor. Personal li ...

, Vietnamese-American broadcaster * Lưu Huỳnh, Vietnamese American film director * Luu Meng, Chinese Cambodian chef, culinary author and hospitality entrepreneur * Lưu Trọng Lư, Vietnamese poet, writer, play writer * Thang Luu, Vietnamese American professional poker Vietnamese-language surnames