Yu is the pinyin romanisation of several Chinese family names. However, in the Wade–Giles romanisation system, Yu is equivalent to You in pinyin. "Yu" may represent many different Chinese characters, including 余, 于, 由, 魚 (鱼), 漁(渔), 楀, 俞(兪), 喻 (this character is 35th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem), 於, 遇, 虞, 郁, 尉, 禹, 游, 尤, 庾, 娛(娱), and 茹 (Rú).
The most common of the Yu surnames are 于, 余, and 俞. In China, 0.62% of the population have the family name 于 in 2002 (about 7.4 million), and this surname is most common in Shandong province and northeastern China.[1] Around 0.41% of the population have the surname 余 in 2002 (over five million), and it is most common in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.[2] The 俞 surname represents around 0.12% of China's population.