Zhu

surname · Latin script

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

Zhu is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Hong Kong it is the 74th most common surname. In Chinese, recorded as nonstandard spelling of zhū.

rarermore common
  • CNChina≈1 in 239as Zhou(inferred from the name graph)
  • HKHong Kong≈1 in 1.5Kas Zhou
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 2.8Kas Zhou

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Zhu itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈5,800,000 named Zhou, est.

5 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
392 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 239 (inferred from the name graph)

China, est., as Zhou

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

ZhouLatin(measured from records)
ЧжоуCyrillic(measured from records)
ซุ้นหั้วThai(measured from records)
ΖούGreek(measured from records)
주읍Hangul(measured from records)

4 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Zhou in US United States, CN China, AU Australia and 5 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)

An ancient Chinese unit of weight, notionally equivalent to 100 millet seeds or 1/24 of the liang/tael/Chinese ounce, chiefly used in denominating small coins in ancient and early imperial China.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

How Zhu is read(measured from records)

Zhu is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • Chinese42%

    nonstandard spelling of zhū

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

  • English33%

    An ancient Chinese unit of weight, notionally equivalent to 100 millet seeds or 1/24 of the liang/tael/Chinese ounce, chiefly used in denominating small coins in ancient and early imperial China.

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

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Zhu 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 Zhu is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China#288≈5,800,000 est.≈1 in 239—Zhou221
US United States#71232,982as Cheng1 in 10K39KZhou392
ES Spain—8,165as Zhou1 in 6.1K8.2KZhou95
AU Australia#109≈8,000 est.≈1 in 3.2K1Zhou219
MY Malaysia#554≈6,600 est.≈1 in 4.9K—Zhou49
TW Taiwan#285≈6,200 est.≈1 in 3.8K—Zhou95
HK Hong Kong#74≈4,800 est.≈1 in 1.5K—Zhou91
SG Singapore#76≈2,300 est.≈1 in 2.8K—Zhou100

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; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal). 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)

Zhu is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Zhú, Zhū, Zhü

  • German surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, China, United States, Austria

    Languages: German, English

    Also written Zhue, Zhü, Zhüë

  • French surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, China, United States, Canada

    Also written Zhù, Zhū

  • Hungarian surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, China, United States, Canada

    Also written Csű, Csü, Csu

  • Vietnamese surname40 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, Hong Kong, Canada

    Also written Chu, Chủ, Chú, Zhou, Chử

69 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)

Zhu is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • ‘Bamboo’. See MEI.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In och, 'To stop'

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

  • In och, Post or stand for musical instruments

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

  • In och, ramie, cloth / rope woven of ramie

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

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)

100012001400160018002000Zhu Xi, b. 1130Yongle Emperor, b. 1360Jiajing Emperor of Ming, b. 1507Wanli Emperor, b. 1563Chongzhen Emperor, b. 1611Zhu Rongji, b. 1928Steven Chu, b. 1948Jon M. Chu, b. 1979Zhu Zhu, b. 1984
  • Zhu Xib. 1130CNChinese historian, neo-Confucian philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty (1130–1200)
  • Yongle Emperorb. 1360CNnot in their usual nameemperor of Ming dynasty China from 1402 to 1424
  • Jiajing Emperor of Mingb. 1507CNnot in their usual nameEmperor of the Ming dynasty from 1521 to 1567
  • Wanli Emperorb. 1563CNnot in their usual nameemperor of the Ming Dynasty (1563-1620)
  • Chongzhen Emperorb. 1611CNnot in their usual nameemperor of the Ming Dynasty
  • Zhu Rongjib. 1928CN5th Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1998 to 2003 (1928–2026)
  • Steven Chub. 1948USnot in their usual nameAmerican physicist, former United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel laureate (born 1948)
  • Jon M. Chub. 1979USnot in their usual nameAmerican filmmaker
  • Zhu Zhub. 1984CNChinese actress
  • Hua MulanCNnot in their usual nameChinese legendary female warrior

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)

Attested in 49 sources across 25 countries.

Official registers attesting Zhu
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202036K#966
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201021K#1,694
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200011K#3,147
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—6.4K#840
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—6.4K#840
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Zhu come from?
An ancient Chinese unit of weight, notionally equivalent to 100 millet seeds or 1/24 of the liang/tael/Chinese ounce, chiefly used in denominating small coins in ancient and early imperial China. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
What does the name Zhu mean?
In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of zhū
In which country does Zhu have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 5.8 million people named Zhou in China, more than in any other country we hold.
How common is the name Zhu?
In the United States, the national register counted 32,982 people named Cheng in 2010, about 1 in 10 thousand residents.
How common is Zhu compared with other names?
In China, Zhu is the 288th most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Zhu?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/zhu

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Zhu” — the 288th most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Zhu parses inside a full name →