Pi is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 皮 in Chinese character. It is romanized P'i in Wade–Giles, and Pei in Cantonese. Pi is listed 85th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. According to a 2008 study, it was not among the 300 most common surnames in China. However a 2013 study found that it was the 279th most common name, being shared by 229,000 people or 0.017% of the population, with the province with the most people being Hunan.
The same surname is also a Korean family name (Korean: 피; MR: P'i), shared by 6,578 people in South Korea in 2015.
Notable people
Rixiu (ca. 834–883), classical poet
Pi Guangye (877–943), chancellor of the Wuyue Kingdom
Pi Xirui (皮錫瑞; 1850–1908), Confucianist
Pi Zongshi (1887–1967), President of Hunan University
Ignatius Pi Shushi (1897–1978), archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Shenyang
Pi Dingjun (皮定钧; 1914–1976), PLA lieutenant general
So-Young Pi (born 1946), South Korean physicist
Pi Hongyan (born 1979), Chinese-born French badminton player
