李

Translingual

Etymology

From 木 ‘tree’ + 子 ‘children’, because of the plum tree's prolific breeding or because it was popular with children.

Han character

李 (radical 75 木+3, 7 strokes, cangjie input 木弓木 (DND), four-corner 4040₇, composition ⿱木子)

1. plum tree
2. the fruit of the plum
3. judge
4. a surname, listed fourth in the Baijiaxing

Usage notes

In mainland China or its expatriates, this name is generally romanized "Li" in accordance with the Hanyu Pinyin system. Although an identical transliteration is used in Wade-Giles, similarity to the English name has made the romanization "Lee" more common in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

• Unihan data for U+F9E1

References

• KangXi: page 511, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14459
• Dae Jaweon: page 895, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1162, character 8
• Unihan data for U+674E

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Cantonese

Hanzi

李 (jyutping lei5, Yale lei5)

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Japanese

Kanji

李

1. plum

Readings

• On: り (ri), い (i)
• Kun: すもも (sumomo)

Noun

李 (hiragana すもも, romaji sumomo)

1. plum (Prunus salicina)

Alternative forms

• 酸桃

Proper noun

李 (katakana リ, romaji Ri)

1. Japanese reading of the Chinese or Korean surname.

李 (katakana リー, romaji Rī)

1. Japanese reading of the Chinese surname.

李 (katakana イ, romaji I)

1. Japanese reading of the Korean surname.

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Korean

Etymology

From Mandarin 李 (“plum”).

Pronunciation

• (North Korea) IPA: [ɾiː]
• (South Korea) IPA: [iː]

Hanja

李
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): (NK) 리, (SK) 이 (revised: Lee, (NK) ri, Rhee, (SK) i, I, McCune-Reischauer: (NK) ri, (SK) i, Yi, Yale: (NK) li, (SK) i)

• Name (hangeul): 자두(Jadu)()

1. (North Korea) 리, (South Korea) 이: the second most common surname in Korea
2. (North Korea) 리, (South Korea) 이: plum

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Mandarin

Hanzi

李 (pinyin lǐ (li3), Lǐ (Li3), Wade-Giles li³, Li³)

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Middle Chinese

Han character

李 (*liə̌)

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Min Nan

Hanzi

李 (POJ Lí)

Descendants

• (Hokkien dialect) Tagalog: Sy

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Vietnamese

Han character

李 (lý, Lý, lí)