Liú

surname · Latin script

Meaning: Hanyu Pinyin reading of 劉 /刘

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Liú is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Hong Kong it is the 16th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • TWTaiwan≈1 in 59(inferred from the name graph)
  • CNChina≈1 in 98
  • HKHong Kong≈1 in 165

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈14,000,000 people, est.

#614 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

5 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
521 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 59 (inferred from the name graph)

Taiwan, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

LiúLatin(measured from records)
ЛюCyrillic(measured from records)
리우Hangul(measured from records)
ΛιουGreek(measured from records)
ლიუGeorgian(measured from records)

6 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Liu in US United States, CN China, AU Australia and 4 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Hanyu Pinyin reading of 劉 /刘

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 23 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Liú counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Liú is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China#254≈14,000,000 est.≈1 in 98—Liu284
TW Taiwan#102≈400,000 est.≈1 in 59—Liu209
US United States#28578,3701 in 4.2K127KLiu521
HK Hong Kong#16≈44,000 est.≈1 in 165—Liu140
MY Malaysia#225≈22,000 est.≈1 in 1.5K—Liu79
AU Australia#63≈22,000 est.≈1 in 1.2K—Liu266
SG Singapore#32≈7,300 est.≈1 in 852—Liu147

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Liú is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, China, Argentina, Chile

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Liu, Líú, Liû, Liù, Líu

  • French surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, China, United States, Canada

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Liu, Liù, Lïu, Líu, Liû

  • a separate name6 spellings in the group

    Also written Liu̇, Liù, Liu, Li︠u︡, Liü

  • Japanese surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Japan, China, United States, Hong Kong

    Also written Liu, Líu, Liǔ, Lìu

2 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Liú is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Irish, verbal noun of liúigh

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

05001000150020002500Emperor Wu of Han, b. 156Liu Shaoqi, b. 1898Liu Xiaobo, b. 1955Gordon Liu, b. 1955Andy Lau, b. 1961Lucy Liu, b. 1968Liu Yang, b. 1978Liu Yifei, b. 1987Simu Liu, b. 1989Dallas Liu, b. 2001
  • Emperor Wu of Hanb. 156not in their usual nameseventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China (157 BC–87 BC)
  • Liu Shaoqib. 1898CN2nd President of the People's Republic of China (1898–1969)
  • Liu Xiaobob. 1955CNChinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist (1955–2017)
  • Gordon Liub. 1955CNChinese martial arts film actor (born 1955)
  • Andy Laub. 1961CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor, film producer, and singer
  • Lucy Liub. 1968USAmerican actress (born 1968)
  • Liu Yangb. 1978CNChinese astronaut
  • Liu Yifeib. 1987CNChinese-American actress and singer (born 1987)
  • Simu Liub. 1989CNChinese-Canadian actor and author (born 1989)
  • Dallas Liub. 2001USAmerican actor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

No register attests this spelling yet

None of the official registers or reference works in our corpus lists Liú under this spelling. The statistics on this page rest on person records, and the related names are inferred from the name graph.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Liú mean, and where does it come from?
Hanyu Pinyin reading of 劉 /刘 Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Liú have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 14 million people named Liú in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled liu.
How common is the name Liú?
In the United States, the national register counted 78,370 people named Liú in 2010, about 1 in 4.2 thousand residents.
How common is Liú compared with other names?
In China, Liú is the 254th most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Liú?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/li%C3%BA

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Liú” — the 254th most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Liú parses inside a full name →