GGood Chinese Name

Chinese surname · rank 417

夔

夔 is read as kuí.

Pinyin

kuí

Script forms

Simplified and traditional 夔

Basic meaning

one-legged monster; walrus

Five element

Earth

Origin

Time: Spring and Autumn tradition, 770-476 BCE

Place: Kui state / Kui city around Zigui, Hubei and old Guizhou / Xiangxi tradition in surname sources; Jingzhao commandery note for later prestige geography

Origin note

Kui/夔 is presented with two source-backed layers. The older legendary layer derives the surname from Lezheng Kui, the Yao-Shun music official, as an ancestor-name surname. The better political-geographic layer derives it from the Chu royal Mi lineage: Xiong Zhi descendants were connected with Kui state or Kui city around the Zigui / Guizhou tradition, and descendants used the state name after Chu destroyed it. The page keeps those layers distinct from the dictionary creature meaning of the character itself.

Historical figures

Historical figures to enrich

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Sources checked