huái 怀

Migration and Distribution (Not available) The Huai surname is not listed among the top 100 surnames in the Chinese Hundred Family Surnames both on the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan. The Huai surname originated in the ancient Zhou Dynasty. In the early days of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wu of Zhou enfeoffed a royal family member named Shuyu to the State of Tang and granted him the "Nine Clans of the Huai Surname," the descendants of the Shang tribe, as his subjects. The descendants of the Nine Clans of the Huai Surname became the Huai clan. Another theory is that after Shuyu was later enfeoffed as the leader of the Jin邑, some of Shuyu's clan members took the character "Huai" from their original fief as their surname, thus forming the Huai surname. There is also a branch of the Huai surname that originated in the State of Zheng during the Spring and Autumn Period. There was a fief called Huaiyi (around present-day Wuzhi County, Henan Province) in the State of Zheng. A high-ranking official of the State of Zheng was enfeoffed there, and his descendants took the fief as their surname, becoming another branch of the Huai surname. In the Spring and Autumn Period, among the royal family of the State of Song, there were also those who took the name of their ancestors as their surname, forming yet another origin of the Huai surname.