Su (surname)


Su is the pinyin romanization of the [list of list of common Chinese surnames|common Chinese language|Chinese surnames|common] Chinese surname written in simplified characters and traditionally.
It was listed 42nd among the Song-era list of the Hundred Family Surnames.
In 2019 it was the 46th most common surname in mainland China.

Romanizations

The Wade form of the name is identical to the pinyin, but it is also sometimes irregularly romanized as Soo.
蘇 and 苏 are also romanized So and Sou in Cantonese; Soh and Souw in Southern Min dialects; and Thu in Gan.
This Chinese name is also the source of the Vietnamese surname Tô ; the Korean surname 소, which is romanized So; the Japanese surname, which is also romanized So; and the Filipino/Tagalog surname So. Also, the Filipino family name "Solon" is a Hispanicized version of So. The Solon clan coming from Cebu are famous for their ancestors who were government officials. The Solons were originally from Canton.

Distribution

Su was the 41st-most-common Chinese surname in the mainland during the 1982 census and the 45th-most-common in the 2007 report on household registrations released by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. It has been listed as the 23rd-most-common Chinese surname in Taiwan.
Su is a somewhat common surname in the United States, listed 5,897th during the 1990 census and 3,835th during the year 2000 one. The other romanizations are less popular: So, Soo, Sou, Thu, and Soh ; Souw had fewer than one hundred resident bearers in the United States during both censuses and was unlisted both times.
Statistics Canada does not release surname lists from its censuses, but Su and So were both listed among the 200-most-common peculiarly Chinese-Canadian surnames in a 2010 survey of the Registered Persons Database of all current and former Canadian health card recipients in the province of Ontario.

Character decomposition

The character 蘇 was formed by the addition of the grass radical to the phonetic component.

Origins

The original pronunciation of 穌 has been reconstructed as *s.ŋˤa in Old Chinese, but this had already developed into su by the time of Middle Chinese. The addition of the grass radical suggests its original meaning was its use describing varieties of the mint perilla, but its general meaning today is as an abbreviation for Suzhou and replacement for a related word meaning "revive".
As with many Chinese surnames, however, there are a variety of separate legends and origins told about the current bearers of the name.
One origin derives from Fan, purported to be the eldest grandson of the six great-great-great-great-grandsons of the Yellow Emperor and said to have lived in Kunwu, the northeast region of Yuncheng in Shanxi. During the Xia dynasty, King Huai or Fen gave Yousu (\

Notable people with the surname Su

Historical

Modern

;Tô
;Soh
  • Benny Soh, Singaporean film actor
  • Cavin Soh, Singaporean actor
  • Soh Chin Aun, Malaysian Footballer
  • Chunghee Sarah Soh, South Korean-born American anthropologist
  • Debra W. Soh, Canadian neuroscientist and science journalist
  • Elson Soh, Singaporean singer
  • Eugene Soh, Singaporean tech artist, founder of Mind Palace
  • June-Young Soh, South Korean director and musician
  • Soh Rui Yong, Singaporean long-distance runner
  • Soh Wooi Yik, Malaysian badminton player

World Federation of Soh Associations

Over 1,000 representatives of Soh Clan Associations from around the world meet every two years at the Congress of the World Federation of Soh Associations. Participants hail from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, America and Europe. The first congress was held in Manila in 1994.