Li is the pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization (spelled Lí, Lǐ, or Lì when pinyin tone diacritics are used) of several distinct Chinese surnames that are written with different characters in Chinese. Li 李 is by far the most common among them, shared by 93 million people in China, and more than 100 million worldwide. It is the second most common Chinese surname behind Wang.
Languages using the Latin alphabet do not distinguish among the different Chinese surnames, rendering them all as Li. In the United States, Li is the 14th most common surname among people of Asian-Pacific Islander descent and the 519th most common surname overall, up from 2,084th in 1990. Li is the 3rd most common Chinese surname in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Lǐ (理) is a Chinese surname. In Mandarin it is pronounced with the dipped third tone of the four tones.
Li (理) family name originated from Gaoyao (皐陶) the son of Shaohao (少昊) in the during the Shun (Chinese leader). Gaoyao was father of Boyi (伯益) the origin of Yíng (Chinese surname), and ancestor of Gaoyang (高揚).
During ancient times Gaoyang's posterity took the surname Li (理), later many changed to surname Li (里), Li (李), etc.
Lì is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 酈 in traditional character and 郦 in simplified character. It is also spelled Lik according to the Cantonese pronunciation. It is listed 303rd in the Song Dynasty classic Hundred Family Surnames.
Li is an ancient surname originating from present-day Henan province. According to traditional accounts recorded in the 9th-century Tang Dynasty text Yuanhe Xing Zuan, after Yu the Great founded the Xia Dynasty, he enfeoffed Juan, a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, at the settlement of Li (modern Licheng Village 郦城村, Neixiang County, Henan), establishing the Li state. During the middle Spring and Autumn period, Li was conquered by the Jin state, one of the major powers of the period. The noble families of Li subsequently adopted the name of their former state as their surname.
Another origin is the non-Chinese Xirong tribe of Lishan (驪山), who used Lishan as their surname, later shortened to Li.
During the Chu–Han Contention, the brothers Li Yiji and Li Shang helped Liu Bang defeat Xiang Yu to establish the Han Dynasty in 206 BC. Li Yiji was a close advisor to Liu Bang but was executed by Liu's enemies when he tried to persuade them to surrender. Li Shang was a great general who became one of the Prime Ministers of Han. He was enfeoffed at Quzhou and awarded the noble title Marquis of Quzhou (曲周侯). Li Shang is commonly revered as the founding ancestor of the Li surname.