Shu (Chinese: 舒; pinyin: Shū) is a Chinese surname. It is 43rd in the Hundred Family Surnames, contained in the verse 熊紀舒屈 (Xiong, Ji, Shu, Qu). Šumuru sinicized their clan name to the Chinese surnames Shu (舒), Xu (徐) or Xiao (蕭) after the demise of the Qing dynasty.[1]
According to the a 2013 study, it is the 143rd most common surname, being shared by 1.09 million people, or 0.082% of the population, with Hunan being the province with the most people sharing the name.[2]
In ancient usage, the characters of meng (孟) (bo 伯 bearing the same notion), zhong (仲), shu (叔) and ji (季) were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth (or last) eldest sons in a family.
The Vietnamese version of the name is Thư, but it is extremely rare.
"Shu" can also be a romanization for Xú (徐) or Xǔ (许).