Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
Shu comes from Mandarin, and ultimately from Chinese.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1978. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Shu through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 95
- 77 boys · 18 girls
- Most popular year
- 1992
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #13,606 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 13,606 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 8 in 1992. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 4,272 as a first name in 2020; 3,177 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.
Shu’s family of names
Inner ring: spellings · outer: across languages.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 12
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Show 4 moreShow fewer
People named Shu
- Yuan ShuChinese general and warlord (died 199)155–199
- Cheng ShuChinese badminton playerborn 1987
- Wen ShuChinese painter who worked under the pen-name Hanshan (1595-1634)1594–1634
- Chen ShuChinese singer and actressborn 1977
- Kim SookSouth Korean comedianborn 1975
- Son SookSouth Korean actressborn 1944
- Pu ShuChinese actor and singerborn 1973
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Shu, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Chu
Chu is a surname from Wade–Giles, ultimately from Mandarin. It is used in English, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Indonesian.
>99% boys
Shao
Shao is a surname from Wade–Giles, ultimately from Chinese. It is used in English and Tagalog.
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You
You is a surname from Wade–Giles, ultimately from Mandarin.
>99% boys
Cheng
Cheng is a surname from Cantonese, ultimately from Mandarin. It is used in English, French, and Tagalog.
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Trong
“one who is respected”
>99% boys
Phi
Phi is a masculine given name from Chinese. It is used in Vietnamese.
91% boys · 9% girls
Zong
Zong is a surname from Chinese.
81% boys · 19% girls
Bao
“to order” · “one who is prized”
>99% boys