Qiu Family History

Chinese : from a place called Yingqiu in the state of Qi, home of the ruling family of Qi during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Descendants of this family adopted part of the placename as their surname, a situation that persisted until the reign of the Qing dynasty emperor Yongzheng (ad 1723–35), whose personal name contained the character for Qiu. He enforced a traditional prohibition upon others bearing the same name as the emperor. To comply, those with the surname Qiu, , changed their name by adding an element to the character for Qiu which resulted in another character, , with the identical pronunciation. This modified form of the surname Qiu is the one most commonly encountered today. Chinese : there are two sources of this name. One is an area named Yingqiu, located in present-day Shandong province. This area was granted to a duke of the state of Qi, whose descendants adopted part of the place name as their surname. Another source is a man called Qiudun Shi, who was a member of the Hu minority during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–581 ad). Chinese : from a character in the personal name of Qiu Mu, a senior adviser to Duke Min Gong of the state of Song during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). After Duke Min Gong was killed by Wan of Song, Qiu Mu sent a punitive expedition against Wan of Song, which was, however, repulsed, with the result that Qiu Mu was killed as well. Coincidentally or not, the character for this name means ‘revenge’, and it was this character that was adopted by some of Qiu Mu’s descendants as a surname. Chinese : two sources are found for this name. One is a place called Qiu in the state of Wei during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). The other source is a family who originally used the character mentioned in 3 above, . To avoid trouble, the family switched to a different character, , which is also pronounced Qiu.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press