He
A short surname found in several unrelated traditions, most famously a Chinese family name.
The #2,373 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 20,097 Americans shares it.
Etymology
He is not a single surname with one origin. In Chinese it is a common family name written with several different characters, most often 何, and in that context it is a very old surname with multiple traditional explanations. In Europe, very short surnames like He can also arise as reduced forms of older names or as spelling variants influenced by local speech, but there is no single dominant English-language derivation that explains all bearers.
History
As a Chinese surname, He has been in use for many centuries and is borne by large numbers of people in China and in Chinese diaspora communities. In non-Chinese contexts, the surname may represent a shortened or altered form of another name, so family histories can differ widely from one bearer to another.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because it is written with very few letters in Roman script, He is easy to confuse with the English pronoun “he,” but as a surname it usually belongs to a completely different naming tradition.