GGood Chinese Name

Chinese surname · rank 23

谢

谢 is read as xiè.

Pinyin

xiè

Script forms

Simplified 谢 · Traditional 謝

Basic meaning

thank; apologize; decline; fade

Five element

Metal

Origin

Time: Western Zhou to early Spring and Autumn period; Western Zhou tradition, 1046-771 BCE

Place: Xie place/fief, commonly associated with today's Nanyang or Tanghe area, Henan Province

Origin note

Xie has more than one recorded origin tradition. The best-known cultural layer links Xie with Shen Bo, who was settled at Xie in the Western Zhou world; the place is associated with the Nanyang/Tanghe area of today's Henan Province. Some surname traditions also preserve an older Xie state/place layer. The profile therefore presents Xie as a state or fief/place surname rather than reducing it to a single modern meaning such as 'thanks'.

Historical figures

谢安 (Xie An)

320-385 CE · Eastern Jin statesman

A leading Xie-family figure remembered for political leadership around the Battle of Fei River.

谢灵运 (Xie Lingyun)

385-433 CE · poet

A major early landscape poet whose work gives the Xie surname a strong literary association.

Sources checked