Dí is the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

of the

Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlik ...

(''Dí''). It was listed 108th among the

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetiti ...

-era ''

Hundred Family Surnames The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dy ...

''.

Romanization

狄 is often

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...

as " Dee".

Distribution

Di no longer appears among the 100 most common names in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

or on

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

. A 2013 study found it to be the 314th-most common name, being shared by 168,000 people or 0.013% of the population, with the province with the most being

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

. It is also quite uncommon in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

: there were fewer than 100 Dis during the 1990 census and while the number in the year 2000 surpassed that it was still ranked 54,296th among the 150,000 or so listed surnames.

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

.
Genealogy Data: Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000
. 27 Sept 2011. Accessed 29 Mar 2012.

Origin

狄 is composed of the

radicals Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

for "animal" () and "fire" () and was used to describe barbarian tribes north of the original ''

zhongguo China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

''. Its

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 12 ...

pronunciation has been reconstructed as ''*lˤek'' and its

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

one as ''Dek''.Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. '' '', p. 19. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.

People with the surname

* Di Renjie, the Tang-dynasty official notable for serving Wu Zetian's Zhou state, better known as " Judge Dee" * Di Qing (狄青, 1008–1057), formerly romanized as Ti Ch'ing, was a military general of the Northern Song dynasty. *

Di Ying Di Ying (; born 21 April 1962) is a Taiwanese actress best known for her roles in ''Dou hua nu'' (1992) and ''Gatao 2: The New King'' (2018). Early life Di was born as Lin Miao-Hsi (林妙嬉) in Taiwan on April 21, 1962. Di's mother was an ...

(狄鶯; born 1962) is a Taiwanese actress (Di was originally the stage name of her father, whose birth name was 伊適杰)

Stagename

* Tina Leung Kwok-hing (Chinese: 梁幗馨; died 31 March 2010), also known by her stage name of Tina Ti or Di Na (Chinese: 狄娜), a Hong Kong actress

References