Shu

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Shue in GB United Kingdom, JM Jamaica, IT Italy and 3 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Shu is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name15K records spelled Shu4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, China, India, United Kingdom

  Also written Shü, Shū, Shù

• Hindi given name4.7K records spelled Shu7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Malaysia, China

  Also written Shü, Shû, Shū, Šhű, Shù

• French given name4.0K records spelled Shu6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, China, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Shü, Shù, Shû, Shū

68 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Shu is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, Acronym of security housing unit.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of shū

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, Egyptian god of the air

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In och, be stationed at a military outpost; guard

  as a word·Schuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

• In cdo, ise the teeth uneven and pro- jecting. iSS. A coll. word : a superla- tive used for emphasis, as in sse j«g lau^ very leaky. iS8. A coll. word : to impose on by fraud, as in selling poor articles : lUgai hwo' ^se tuSnff^ to palm off bad goods on persons ； k^eUk, ^neng to be swindled by persons ； iSS md ^ kwd' sieng^ to fail to take one in.

  as a word·An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

SE SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) — 22 years between 1999–2020. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Yuan Shub. 155CNChinese general and warlord (died 199)
• Shu Uemurab. 1928JPJapanese businessman
• Shū Wadab. 1938JPJapanese actor
• Shu Kamob. 1939JPJapanese association football player and manager
• Son Sookb. 1944KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
• Shu Takumib. 1971JPJapanese video game developer
• Shū Kuratab. 1988JPJapanese association football player
• Shu Watanabeb. 1991JPJapanese actor
• Shu Maedab. 1993JPJapanese association football player
• Shu Mogib. 1999JPJapanese association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 208 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Shu?

We estimate roughly 3.2 thousand people bear Shu (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.

In which country does Shu have the most bearers?

Shu is most frequently recorded in Malaysia, where it is most often spelled shu.

How common is Shu compared with other names?

In Malaysia, Shu is the 248th most common given name of 325,158 given names recorded there.

Is Shu a male or female name?

Shu is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Shu mean?

Recorded meaning: ‘Fair’. Shuang @ 1’Bright’ or ‘clear’.