Hou Family Name#

Family Name: Hou, Pronunciation: hóu

Distribution of the Hou Family Name#

Norwestern Hebei Province

Origins of the Hou Family Name#

The origin of the “Hou” family name can be traced back to several sources:

1. From the Ji surname: Some families adopted the title “Hou” as their surname. According to the “New Tang Book: Table of Prime Ministers’ Genealogies,” during the Spring and Autumn period, Duke Ai of Jin and his brother were killed by Duke Wu of Jin. Their descendants fled to other countries and took the title “Hou” as their surname. Hou Ying of the Wei state was one of their descendants.
2. From the Si surname: Descendants of the Xia royal family were granted the state of Hou, and their descendants adopted this as their surname.
3. From Xianbei tribal surnames: During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were Xianbei surnames such as Hou Nu and Hou Fu in the Northern Wei. After moving to the Central Plains, these were changed to the Chinese character surname “Hou.”

Ancestral Founder of the Hou Family Name

The origins of the Hou family name can be traced back to King Wen of Zhou. The first branch of the Hou family, according to the “Yuanhe Xing Zuan,” originated from the descendants of Marquis Min of Jin who fled to other countries during the Spring and Autumn period and adopted “Hou” as their surname. At that time, there were also individuals with the surnames Hou Yiduo and Hou Duoyu in the Zheng state, Hou Shuxia and Hou Fei in the Lu state, Hou Chao in the Qi state, and Hou Ying in the Wei state. Duke Min of Jin was killed by Duke Wu of Jin, and his descendants took the title “Hou” as their surname. This branch of the Hou family is a direct descendant of King Wen of Zhou, dating back more than 3,000 years, and is considered the authentic origin of the surname.

Migration and Distribution

During the Pre-Qin period, the Hou family name was prevalent in Henan, Shandong, and southern Shaanxi and Shanxi. During the Qin and Han dynasties, due to frequent wars in the Central Plains, the Hou family migrated north to Hebei and Shanxi, and west to Gansu and Ningxia. During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Hou family name spread among the Xianbei people in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning. The Hou family name also spread to Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangdong in the northwest. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the Hou family name appeared in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangxi. During the Ming Dynasty, it reached Taiwan. In the Song Dynasty, there were approximately 340,000 people with the Hou surname, accounting for about 0.45% of the national population, ranking 50th in popularity. Shanxi had the largest number of Hou family members, accounting for about 34% of the national total. The main areas of the Hou family name distribution were Shanxi, Henan, and Hunan, with these three provinces accounting for about 74% of the total population; followed by Shandong and Sichuan, which together accounted for another 14%.

Over the centuries, the Hou family name spread across the country, with significant migrations from the north to the south and east. The population growth of the Hou family name declined during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, with a net decrease of 80,000 people due to wars and killings. As the Hou family name was primarily associated with northern regions, it suffered heavily during these times. Shanxi remained the province with the largest number of Hou family members, accounting for about 17.6% of the national total.

Today, the Hou family name is still widely distributed, with the main concentrations in Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi, accounting for about 31% of the national total. Other significant populations are found in Liaoning, Anhui, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Hebei, which together account for another 33%. The distribution of the Hou family name has shifted, with a focus on the northern regions of Qin, Jin, Henan, and Shandong, as well as the southern regions of Hunan and Sichuan.