Explore the Family Name Zuo

The meaning of Zuo

Chinese: 1. Mandarin form of the surname 左, meaning ‘left-hand side’: (i) borne by descendants of Zuo Che (左徹), an official who lived during the reign of the legendary Huang Di, the ‘Yellow Emperor’ (c.27th century bc). His name is said to date back to an ancient state called Zuo (左). (ii) from Zuo Shi (左史), meaning ‘left-hand official scribe’, the name of an official post during the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BC) and the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BC). There were two official scribes during the Western Zhou dynasty. One was called Zuo Shi (左史), ‘left-hand scribe’; he was responsible for recording words. The other was called You Shi ‘right-hand scribe’, who was responsible for recording events. (iii) borne by descendants of Zuo Gong Zi, the ‘left prince’, a noble in the state of Qi, where there were two princes, called Zuo Gong Zi (‘left prince’) and You Gong Zi (‘right prince’) respectively. (iv) possibly a shortened form of the compound Chinese surname Zuo-Qiu (左丘), which was originally the name of a place (located in Linzi in Shandong province). 2. Mandarin form of the surname 佐, meaning ‘assist’ in Chinese: of unknown ancestral origin.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.