Li is the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

and

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles ( ) is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from the system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's '' A Chinese–English Dictionary'' ...

romanization (spelled Lí, Lǐ, or Lì when pinyin

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

s are used) of several distinct

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

s that are written with different characters in Chinese. Li 李 is by far the most common among them, shared by 93 million people in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, and more than 100 million worldwide. It is the second most common Chinese surname behind

Wang Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) Wang () is the pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the common Chinese surname (''Wáng''). It has a mixture of various origin with uncertain lineage of family history, however it is c ...

. Languages using the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

do not distinguish between these different Chinese surnames, rendering them all as Li. In the United States, Li is the 14th most common surname among people of Asian-Pacific Islander descent and the 519th most common surname overall, up from 2,084th in 1990. Li is the 3rd most common Chinese surname in the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, behind Wong and Chan.

List of surnames romanized as Li or Lee

* Lǐ 李 (3rd tone), the 2nd most common surname in

, shared by 100 million people worldwide. The character also means "plum". Commonly spelled as Lee in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, and

overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...

communities. In

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, it is spelled as "Lý". *Lǐ 理 (3rd tone), means "reason". * Lí 黎 (2nd tone), the 84th most common surname in China. "Lai" or "Lye" in Cantonese. The character also means "dark". * Lì 栗 (4th tone), the 249th most common surname in China. "Leut" in Cantonese. The character also means "chestnut". * Lì 利 (4th tone), the 299th most common surname in China. The character also means "sharp", "take advantage" * Lì 厲 / 厉 (4th tone). "Lai" in Cantonese. The character also means "strict" or "severe". * Lì 酈 / 郦 (4th tone). "Lik" in Cantonese. The character is exclusively used in proper names and has no other meaning. *Lì 莉 (4th tone), a rare surname of the

Hui people The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Islam in China, Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the Northwest China, northwestern provinces and in the Zhongy ...

. The character also means "jasmine".

Related surnames

Lee (Korean surname) Lee, I, or Yi () is the List of Korean surnames, second-most-common surname in Korea, behind Kim (Korean surname), Kim (). As of the South Korean census of 2015, there were 7,306,828 people by this name in South Korea or 14.7% of the populatio ...

: a common Korean surname derived from Lǐ 李. * Lý (Vietnamese name): a Vietnamese surname derived from and also an alternate spelling of Lǐ 李. * Lê (surname): a common Vietnamese surname derived from Lí 黎.

References

{{reflist Chinese-language surnames Multiple Chinese surnames Lists of surnames Cultural assimilation and names Romanization

List of surnames romanized as Li or Lee

Related surnames

See also

References