Pu is the Pinyin transcription of a number of distinct Chinese surnames, including:
Chinese: 蒲; pinyin: Pú; Cantonese Yale: Pòuh; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Phô, meaning "reed" or "rush". According to the Lushi, this character was adopted as a surname during the Xia Dynasty by the Youhu clan (有扈氏) due to the rushes which grew in their family gardens. It is the 269th character in the Hundred Family Surnames.
Chinese: 浦; pinyin: Pǔ; Cantonese Yale: Pòuh. This is a toponymic surname, from the Pu River (浦江) in Shandong. According to the Xingshi Kaolue (姓氏考略), descendants of Jiang Ziya who lived on the banks of the Pu River changed their surname from Jiang to Pu. It is the 318th character in the Hundred Family Surnames.
Chinese: 濮; pinyin: Pú; Cantonese Yale: Buhk. This is also a toponymic surname; the character was originally used to write the name of a vassal state of the State of Qi in Shandong. People with this surname spread out from there to Puyang and Hua Counties in Henan. It is the 309th character in the Hundred Family Surnames.
Chinese: 朴; pinyin: Pǔ; Cantonese Yale: Pok; meaning Celtis sinensis (a kind of tree). This is also used to write the Korean surname Park.
These surnames may also be transcribed as Poo. People with these surnames include:
Pu Songling (蒲松齡; 1640–1715), Qing Dynasty Chinese writer
Pu Hua (蒲華; 1834–1911), Qing Dynasty Chinese landscape painter and calligrapher
Pao Ming Pu (蒲保明; 1910–1988), Chinese mathematician, pioneer of systolic geometry
Pu Chaozhu (普朝柱; 1929-2002), Communist Party of China politician from Yunnan
Mu-chou Poo (蒲慕州; born 1952), Taiwanese Egyptologist
Pu Cunxin (濮存昕; born 1953), Chinese stage actor
Pu Zhongjie (蒲忠杰; born 1963), Chinese businessman
Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强; born 1965), Chinese civil rights lawyer
Pu Shu (樸樹; born 1973), Chinese singer
Ai-jen Poo (蒲艾真; born 1974), American labour activist
Pu Wei (浦瑋; born 1980), Chinese football (soccer) player
Pu Yiqi (born 1981), Chinese former swimmer who competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics
Pu Jun Jin (蒲俊錦; born 1984), Chinese racing driver
Pu Qifeng (born 1986), Chinese sport shooter
Pu Yixian (born 1992), Chinese road cyclist
