Looi

Looi

Language(s)	Chinese, Dutch
Origin
Derivation	Chinese: Surname characters 雷 (Léi in Mandarin) or 呂 (Lǚ) Dutch: Given names Eligius, Lodewijk, or Ludolf
Region of origin	Chinese: Spelling used in Malaysia by descendants of migrants from Guangdong province Dutch: Friesland, Groningen, southern Netherlands
Other names
Variant form(s)	Chinese: Lui, Loi, Louie Dutch: Looij

Looi is a surname.

Origins

Like many other similarly-spelled surnames (Lui, Loi, Louie, etc.), it can originate from either of two Chinese surnames which are almost homophonous in Cantonese, though pronounced distinctly in Mandarin:

• Léi (雷), meaning "thunder" (Jyutping: Leoi4; Cantonese Yale: Lèuih). The spelling Looi might also originate from its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects, e.g. Hokkien (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lûi) or Chaoshan (Peng'im: Lui5).[1][2]
• Lǚ (呂), a toponymic surname from the ancient state of Lü (Jyutping: Leoi5; Cantonese Yale: Léuih; note the differing tone). The pronunciation in other varieties of Chinese is not similar to the surname meaning "thunder".[3]

As a Dutch surname, Looi originated both as shortened version of van de Looi with the tussenvoegsels dropped, and as a patronymic surname derived from the given name Looi. That given name is a regional hypocorism of various other given names: it may be short for Ludolf, or for Lodewijk in Groningen and the southern Netherlands, or for Eligius in Friesland. Alternative spellings include Looij.[4][5]

Statistics

In the Netherlands, there were nine people with the surname Looi and 35 people with the surname van de Looi as of 2007, up from three and nine respectively in 1947.[6][7]

People

People with the surname Looi include:

• Looi Loon Teik (雷隆德; born 1945), Malaysian footballer
• Melinda Looi (呂例霓; born c. 1973), Malaysian fashion designer

People with the surname van de Looi include:

• Erwin van de Looi (born 1972), Dutch football manager
• Tom van de Looi (born 1999), Dutch football midfielder

See also

• Van Looy, also a Dutch surname

References

1. Jones, Russel (August 1959). "Chinese Names: Notes on the use of surnames & personal names by the Chinese in Malaya". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 32 (187). JSTOR 41505683.
2. Medhurst, Walter Henry (1832). A dictionary of the Hok-këèn dialect of the Chinese language, according to the reading and colloquial idioms. East India Company Press. p. 474. Fielde, Adele M. (1883). "雷". A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. p. 368. Additionally see "雷". mogher.com. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
3. See e.g. Medhurst 1832, p. 436 for the Hokkien pronunciation.
4. "Looij". Nederlandse Familienamenbank. Centrum voor familiegeschiedenis. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
5. "Looi". Nederlandse Voornamenbank. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
6. "Looi, van de". Nederlandse Familienamenbank. Centrum voor familiegeschiedenis. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
7. "Looi". Nederlandse Familienamenbank. Centrum voor familiegeschiedenis. Retrieved 2 January 2020.