Given name & surname
Qi
“a life force”
Qi is used as a given name and a surname. One Chinese interpretation is “a life force.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Chinese interpretation is “a life force.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Chinese.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2000. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Qi through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 38
- 28 boys · 10 girls
- Most popular year
- 2002
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2018. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 7 in 2002. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 5,102 as a first name in 2020; 4,474 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Qi’s family of names
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 18
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Qi
- Qi of Xiason of Yu the Great ; second Xia Dynasty king (r. 1978 BCE-1963 BCE)
- Ma QiMa clique warlord controlling Gansu and Qinghai province at the beginning of the 20th century (1869-1931)
- Liu QiChinese ski jumperborn 1996
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Qi, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Zi
“a flourishing young woman”
49% boys · 51% girls
Jie
“one who is pure; chaste”
83% boys · 17% girls
Wei
“one who is valuable and brilliant” · “a brilliant man; having great strength”
79% boys · 21% girls
Phi
Phi is a masculine given name from Chinese. It is used in Vietnamese.
91% boys · 9% girls
Xi
Xi is a surname from Mandarin.
56% boys · 44% girls
Yu
“resembling jade” · “one who is honored; born during a rainfall”
81% boys · 19% girls
Zong
Zong is a surname from Chinese.
81% boys · 19% girls
Moo
Moo is a surname from Chinese, ultimately from Cantonese.
65% boys · 35% girls