Zhou (surname)

Zhōu / Chou

Zhou surname in regular script
Romanisation	Zhōu (Mandarin Pinyin) Zau1 (Cantonese Jyutping) Chiu (Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Pronunciation	[ʈʂóʊ] (Mandarin) [tsɐw˥] (Cantonese) [tɕiu˦] (Hokkien) [tsɛ̂] (Wu) [ɕɯː] (Japanese)
Language(s)	Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese
Origin
Language(s)	Old Chinese
Derivation	Zhou dynasty
Other names
Variant form(s)	Zhou (Mandarin China) Chou (Mandarin Taiwan) Chow, Chau (Hong Kong) Chao (Macao) Chew, Chiu (Hokkien, Teochew) Châu (Vietnamese) Joo, Ju (Korean) Ciu, Djioe, Tjio, Tjioe, Tjoe (Indonesian) Shū (Japanese)
Derivative(s)	Cahyadin, Ciwijaya, Cokrorahajo, Gimin, Johari, Juanda, Juanita, Mulyono (Chinese Indonesian)

Zhōu (Chinese: 周; pinyin: Zhōu; Wade–Giles: Chou¹) is a Chinese-language surname. In places which use the Wade–Giles romanization such as Taiwan, Zhou is usually spelled as Chou, and it may also be spelled as Chiau, Chau, Chao, Chew, Chow, Chiu, Cho, Chu, Jhou, Jou, Djou, Jue, Jow, Joe, or Tseu, depending on regional pronunciation.

In classical genealogy, the main origin of the surname 周 (Zhou) derives from the royal members of the house of Zhou, originally surnamed 姬 (Ji). They were the descendants of King Ping of Zhou, adopted the surname 周 (Zhou) after the fall of the Zhou dynasty.^[1]

Zhou ranks as the 10th most common surname in Mainland China as of 2019^[update].^[2] In 2013 it was found to be the 10th most common name, shared by 25,200,000 people or 1.900% of the population, with the province with the most being Hunan.

Derived from the Zhou dynasty, it has been one of the ten most common surnames in China since the Yuan dynasty. It is the 5th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem. The Korean surname, "Joo" or "Ju", and The Vietnamese surname, "Châu" or "Chu", are both derived from and written with the same Chinese character (周). The character also means "around". Zhōu also stands for other, rare Chinese family names, 舟, 州，and 洲.