Find out how popular the last name Pu is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Pu.

Pu, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Pu surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pu in America

Pu is the 20449th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pu surname appeared 1,299 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Pu.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pu to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Pu

The surname Pu originated in China and is believed to have derived from the word "pu," which means "ordinary" or "common" in various Chinese dialects. The name can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), when it was first recorded in historical documents.

One of the earliest known references to the name Pu can be found in the ancient Chinese text "Shiji" (Records of the Grand Historian), written by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC. The text mentions several individuals with the surname Pu, indicating its widespread usage during that time.

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), the Pu family gained prominence and produced several notable scholars and officials. One such figure was Pu Shougeng (1036-1101), a renowned Confucian scholar and philosopher who made significant contributions to Neo-Confucianism.

In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), the Pu surname was particularly prevalent in the southern regions of China, such as Guangdong and Fujian provinces. The town of Pujiang in Zhejiang province is believed to have been named after a prominent Pu family that resided there.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 AD), the Pu family continued to play an important role in Chinese society. Pu Songlin (1592-1672) was a famous playwright and literary critic who wrote several influential works on Chinese drama and poetry.

Another notable figure with the surname Pu was Pu Xuezhi (1892-1966), a prominent educator and politician who served as the Minister of Education in the Republic of China government during the 1940s.

Other historical figures with the Pu surname include Pu Linzhang (1819-1886), a Qing Dynasty scholar and reformist who advocated for modernization and westernization in China, and Pu Renxuan (1926-2005), a renowned Chinese linguist and scholar of ancient Chinese inscriptions.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pu

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Pu.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Pu was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Pu has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Pu was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Pu, please contact us.

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