Li (surname 李)

Li or Lee (li3; ) is a common Chinese surname, it is the 4th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames. Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million in Asia. It is the second-most common surname in China as of 2018, the second-most common surname in Hong Kong, and the 5th most common surname in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Lee". The surname is pronounced as lei5 () in Cantonese, Lí (poj) in Taiwanese Hokkien, but is often spelled as "Lee" in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and many overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as "Lei". In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as "Lie". The common Korean surname, "Lee" (also romanized as "I", "Yi", "Ri", or "Rhee"), and the Vietnamese surname, "Lý", are both derived from Li and written with the same Chinese character (李). The character also means "plum" or "plum tree". Li, Lee 李 is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by more than 93 million people in China, or about 7.4% of the Chinese population. In Asia, more than 100 million people bear the surname. It was formerly thought to be the most common surname in China, but a 2013 analysis of the names of 1.33 billion Chinese citizens has concluded that Li is the second-most common surname, behind Wang with 95 million people. In 2019 it was again the second-most common surname in Mainland China. Li 李 is the most common surname for the Hakka people. Geographically, Li is one of the most common surnames in North China and Southwest China. In 2019 Li was the most common surname in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei and Hunan. In provinces such as Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Yunnan, more than 8.8% of the local population are surnamed Li. Among all Chinese provinces, Henan has the largest number of Li, accounting for 10.3% of the total. Li is less common in southern and southeastern China. Comparatively speaking, in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hainan, as well as Taiwan, only 2.2 to 6.