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The li Surname

li Name Meaning and History

  1. Chinese : from a character meaning ‘minister’. This was part of the title of Gao Yao, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu, who became famous as a minister under the model emperors Yao and Shun in the 23rd century bc; he was the first to introduce laws for the repression of crime. His descendants adopted this part of his title as their surname. The use of this name continued for over a millennium to the twelfth century bc, down to the rule of the last king of the Shang dynasty, the despotic Zhou Xin. Li Zhi, the head of the Li clan at that time, displeased Zhou Xin and was executed, leaving the rest of the clan facing imminent disaster. They fled, and nearly starved to death, surviving only by eating a fruit called mu zi. When the characters for mu and zi are combined, they form the character for plum, pronounced Li. In token of this salvation, the clan changed their name to the current character for li ‘plum’. Li is now the most common surname in China. Among the many famous bearers are Lee Kwan Yew, prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990; Lee Teng-hui, president of Taiwan from 1988; Li Peng, prime minister of China from 1988; and Bruce Lee (1941–73), movie actor.
  2. Chinese : from the name of a state of Li (in present-day Shanxi province), which existed during the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc). Descendants of the state’s rulers adopted the name of the state as their surname.
  3. Chinese : this character for Li is an altered form of 1 above.
  4. Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads named Li, from Old Norse hlíð ‘mountain slope’, ‘hillside’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The li name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the li family name as far back in history as possible.

li Family Facts

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Distribution of li Families in the US in 1920
Number of li families
 7-12
 3-6		 1-2
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
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More resources for your li family history

Li message board


Threads: 3 - Messages: 3
ThreadAuthorReplies
LI Amber 1988 1988 t42Martin_DenCoTX 0
FROM BOARD ADMINISTRATOR, PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING A MESSAGE shadeebh 0
Obit: Ruth Li Lorie 0
Viewing 1-3 of 3 |  Go to the full board

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