Lei

Lei or Leis may refer to:

LEI may refer to:

LEIS may refer to:

Lei (surname)

Lei is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 雷 (Léi).

Additionally, the very common Chinese surname Li (李) is sometimes romanized as "Lei", particularly among the Macanese.

Romanization

雷 is also romanized as Lui in Hokkien and Teochew, and Loi in Cantonese; Louie or Louis in Taishanese; Lūi in Gan.

It is rendered as Lôi in Vietnamese; Roe (뢰) or Noe (뇌) in Korean; and Rai in Japanese.

Distribution

雷 is the 79th-most-common surname in mainland China but not included among the 100 most common surnames on Taiwan.

In the United States, Lei is an uncommon surname, ranking 14,849th during the 1990 census and 6,583rd during the year 2000 census. In order, "Roe", "Louis", "Noe", "Louie", and "Lui" were all more common than the pinyin name; Loi and Rai were quite uncommon; and Leoi was held by fewer than 100 US residents and left unlisted by the Census Bureau.

In Canada, Lei and Lui were among the 200 most common peculiarly Chinese-Canadian surnames found in a 2010 study by Baiju Shah & al, which data-mined the Registered Persons Database of Canadian health card recipients in the province of Ontario. Rai was found, but among the most common surnames of the Indian-Canadian community.

Lei (garland)

Lei is a garland or wreath. More loosely defined, a lei is any series of objects strung together with the intent to be worn. The most popular concept of a lei in Hawaiian culture is a wreath of flowers presented upon arriving or leaving as a symbol of affection. This concept was popularized through tourism between the Hawaiian Islands and the continental United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Children and sweethearts are poetically referred to as "lei" and many ancient and modern songs and chants refer to this imagery.

Symbolism

A lei can be given to someone for a variety of reasons. Most commonly, these reasons include love, honor, or friendship for another person. Common events during which leis may be distributed include graduations, weddings, and school dances. Often the composition of a lei determine the meaning behind a lei; a lei made using a hala fruit for instance is said to be connected to love, desire, transition, and change.

Materials

A lei (nā lei is the plural in the Hawaiian language) may be composed of a pattern or series of just about anything, but most commonly consists of fresh natural foliage such as flowers, leaves, vines, fern fronds, and seeds. The most commonly used flowers are those of plumerias, tuberose, carnations, orchids, and pikake, though maile leaves, ferns, and tī leaves are extremely popular as well as traditional among hula dancers. Other types of lei may include sea or land shells, fish teeth, bones, feathers, plastic flowers, fabric, paper (including origami and monetary bills), candy, or anything that can be strung together in a series or pattern and worn as a wreath or a necklace. The Hawaiian Island of Ni‘ihau is famous for its lei made of tiny gem-like shells.