Qiū (Mandarin) Yau (Cantonese) Kho, Khoe, Khoo, Koo, Khu (Hokkien, Teochew) Khâu (Vietnamese) Koo, Gu, Ku (Korean)
Qiu (丘/邱) is an
East Asian surname.
Pinyin: Qiū in
Mandarin Chinese, Yau4 in
Cantonese, Chiu1 in
Wade-Giles (widely used in Taiwan), respectively, of the
Chinese surnames丘/邱 (these two are genealogically linked), and 秋. The character 邱 means "mound, dune, or hill" but is commonly used as a surname. This surname is common in Mainland China, and is also one of the most influential surnames in
Taiwan, as well as the
Sichuan and
Fujian provinces in the
South China region.[1]
丘/邱 also appear in Korea, where they may be transliterated as:
In 1046 BC,
King Wu of the
Zhou dynasty overthrew the
Shang dynasty with the help of his adviser,
Jiang Ziya. Jiang's clan later settled in the
Fufeng County of
Shaanxi, where they took the name of the then-capital, Qiu, as their surname. Their descendants bore this surname until the reign of the
Yongzheng Emperor (1677–1735) in the
Qing dynasty, when some adopted the written form 邱 to distinguish it from the name of Confucius (孔丘).[1] However, the change was mostly adopted by Hokkiens while the Hakkas generally refused. Many Hakkas who refused the change were then prosecuted by the Qing government. It was only after the fall of the Qing dynasty and establishment of the
Republic of China in 1912, that some members of the Qiu (邱) family reverted to their ancient surname Qiu (丘)[2]
In the early Zhou dynasty, King Wu awarded
Cao Xie, the descendant of
Zhuanxu, the land of Zhu (now it is located southeast part of Qufu, Shandong Province) and established a state there. During the
Spring and Autumn period, there was a senior official in the state named Qiu Ruo, and his descendants have taken Qiu as their surname since then.[1]
An official named
Zuo Qiuming in the
Lu state in the Spring and Autumn period lived in Zuo Qiu (now in Dingtao in southern Shandong). And his descendants took the last part of the place name as their surname. In the pre-
Qin period (21st century-221 BC), most of the Qiu families lived in the Shandong area. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the Qiu families gradually moved to the southern areas. And most of them were big families to the south of the
Yangtze River. The Qiu families entered Taiwan in the early Qing dynasty and Qiu has become one of the popular surnames in the country.
Another sect came from the Qiudun (丘敦) clan of the
Wuhuan, who changed their clan name to Qiu when they became sinicized during the
Southern and Northern Dynasties
Paethongtarn Shinawatra (丘氏) (b. 1986), Thai businesswoman, politician and Chief Adviser to
Pheu Thai for participation and innovation, daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra
Shing-Tung Yau (丘成桐) (b. 1949), a Chinese-American mathematician
This page lists people with the
surnameQiū. If an
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