Chinese surname · rank 343
水
水 is read as shuǐ.
shuǐ
Simplified and traditional 水
water, liquid, lotion, juice
Water
Time: Song textual or Bai Jia Xing layer, 960-1279 CE
Place: Kuaiji / Yu water-control tradition, with Shuiqiu simplification recorded separately.
Origin note
Shui is handled as a rare surname with several source-preserved origin layers, not as a surname invented from the everyday word water. The central traditional layer links Shui to the Si lineage and to the Yu water-control story: later accounts say a Yu-line descendant or waterworker remained around Kuaiji and used Shui as the surname. A second layer treats Shui as an example of taking a water-related name or locality as a surname, comparable to other river or lake names; this is a category claim, not proof for every family. A third layer records simplification from the compound surname Shuiqiu. Because Wikipedia notes the surname appears relatively late in historical-name evidence, this page presents the Yu material as a lineage tradition and uses Ming figures such as Shui Sumin only as later attestation of the surname in records.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
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