# Wu (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/wu/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A common surname from Chinese

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chinese |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 71,721 |
| US rank (2010) | 461 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 4,305 people |
| Change since 2000 | +57% (45,815 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwuː/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 吳 /吴 (Wú). Doublet of O.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Wu in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 1.4% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 0.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 96% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |
| Two or more races | 1.6% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Wu in the United States, Australia, the People's Republic of China, Brazil, Eastern Han and Canada.

## People named Wu

- Constance Wu, American actress (born 1982)
- Daniel Wu, American actor
- Felipe Almeida Wu, Brazilian sport shooter
- Melissa Wu, Australian diver
- Kristy Wu, American actress
- Alice Wu, American film director
- David Wu, American politician (born 1955)
- Brianna Wu, American video game developer
- Sau Lan Wu, American physicist
- Tim Wu, American legal scholar
- Wu Han, 1st century CE Eastern Han dynasty general
- Tai Tsun Wu, American nuclear physicist (1933–2024)

and 11 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Waugh, Way, Woo, Wei, Wah, Wee, Wai.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.