Lu

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: person from Lu, an ancient Chinese state in Henan, and also an area in Shandong

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/lʉː/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Lu is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Hong Kong it is the 5th most common given name.

rarermore common
  • CNChina≈1 in 1.3K(inferred from the name graph)
  • HKHong Kong≈1 in 510as Ling
  • HUHungary1 in 788as Flóra

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 Lu 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)

≈1,100,000 people, est.

3 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
477 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 1.3K (inferred from the name graph)

China, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

FloraLatin(measured from records)
ลั้งThai(measured from records)
ფლორაGeorgian(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Ling in MY Malaysia, HK Hong Kong, ID Indonesia, Flora in US United States and Flóra in HU Hungary.

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)

person from Lu, an ancient Chinese state in Henan, and also an area in Shandong

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

How Lu is read(measured from records)

Lu is one spelling over 3 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.

  • English49%

    person from Lu, an ancient Chinese state in Henan, and also an area in Shandong

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

    Archaic form of loo (“card game”).

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

  • Chinese25%

    Hanyu Pinyin reading of 氌 /氇

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

  • Spanish5.2%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Lu in Spanish.

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)

Lu 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 Lu is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈1,100,000 est.≈1 in 1.3K—Lu206
US United States#68326,834as Flora1 in 12K47KFlora477
MY Malaysia#25≈19,000 est.≈1 in 1.7K—Ling135
TW Taiwan#652≈19,000 est.≈1 in 1.3K—Lu174
ID Indonesia—≈16,000 est.≈1 in 17KlistedLing129
HK Hong Kong#5≈14,000 est.≈1 in 510—Ling104
HU Hungary#58012,393as Flóra1 in 78812KFlóra53
AL Albania—3,522as Flora1 in 8733.5K—1

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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); INSTAT Albania — Search the name (given-name counts). 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)

Lu is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname42 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Mexico, Brazil, China

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

    Also written Lú, Lü, Lù, Lu', Lű

  • a separate name18 spellings in the group

    Also written Lǖ, Lư̄, Lũ, Lű, Lü

  • Vietnamese surname47 spellings in the group

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

    Also written Lo, Lò, Lữ, Lư, Lô

  • French surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, China, Canada

    Also written Lü, Lu', Lù, Lú, L-U

  • Hindi surname16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, China, India, United Kingdom

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Lü, Lù, Lǚ, Lů, Lú

  • a separate surname21 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, China, India, United Kingdom

    Also written Lü, Lû, Lù, Lữ, Lu̕

  • Danish surname9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Denmark, China, Norway

    Languages: Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic

    Also written Lü, Lú, Lù

  • Russian surname51 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in China, Russia, United States, Ukraine

    Languages: Russian, Chinese, English

    Also written Лу, Weiliang, Wei-Liang, Lü, Lù

78 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)

Lu is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Korean, Ancient Chinese state, Confucius's native state; capital of the Chunqiu chronology.

    as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary

  • In French, Presque comme le mot précédent, Jean-Romain L efèvre prit la première lettre de son nom ainsi que la première du nom de sa femme Pauline-Isabelle U tile pour donner une appellation à son célèbre « petit-beurre » créé en 1886. Pour la petite histoire, notons que ce petit-beurre connut un tel succès que, quatre ans après son lancement, l’usine faisait travailler mille personnes.

    as a name2500 noms propres devenus communs : dictionnaire étymologique (éponymes, antonomases et hypallages)

  • In Italian, artigo masculino singular meridional, variante de Io

    as a nameDicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

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)

19201940196019802000Lisa Lu, b. 1927Chuan Leekpai, b. 1938Lü Yue, b. 1957Ken Lo, b. 1959Edward Tsang Lu, b. 1963Lu Yi, b. 1976Lu Yen-hsun, b. 1983Jing Lusi, b. 1985Jessica Lu, b. 1985Lu Han, b. 1990
  • Lisa Lub. 1927USChinese actress (born 1927)
  • Chuan Leekpaib. 1938THnot in their usual nameThai politician
  • Lü Yueb. 1957CNChinese cinematographer and film director
  • Ken Lob. 1959CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong martial artist
  • Edward Tsang Lub. 1963USAmerican physicist and astronaut
  • Lu Yib. 1976CNChinese actor and singer
  • Lu Yen-hsunb. 1983TWTaiwanese tennis player (born 1983)
  • Jing Lusib. 1985CNnot in their usual nameChinese-British actress
  • Jessica Lub. 1985USAmerican actress
  • Lu Hanb. 1990CNChinese singer and 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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Lu,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 71 sources across 35 countries.

Official registers attesting Lu
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202047K#717
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201036K#978
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200023K#1,424

Reference works 4

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • 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

What does the name Lu mean, and where does it come from?
person from Lu, an ancient Chinese state in Henan, and also an area in Shandong Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
In which country does Lu have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 1.1 million people named Lu in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled lu.
How do you pronounce Lu?
A machine transcription gives /lʉː/ (IPA) for English.
What are other forms of the name Lu?
In the etymology graph, លូ is a form of the same name in other languages.
How common is the name Lu?
In the United States, the national register counted 26,834 people named Flora in 2020, about 1 in 12 thousand residents.
How common is Lu compared with other names?
In Hong Kong, Lu is the 5th most common given name of 23,276 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Lu?

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

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, “Lu” — the 5th most common given name in Hong Kong. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Lu parses inside a full name →