The Romanization Chi represents at least thirteen different
Chinese surnames and a Korean one.
Chinese: this
character means ‘pond’ and is found in names of lakes and areas
surrounding lakes. As many Chinese surnames originated in place names
(often containing the word ‘pond’), so the surname Chi developed
naturally from the word for ‘pond’.
Korean: There are two
Chinese characters for the Chi surname, borne by different groups.
The smaller of the two groups has only one clan associated with it,
the majority of whose members live in Kangw{ou}n and Ch’ungch’{ou}n
North Provinces of South Korea and North Korea’s P’y{ou}ngan North
Province. The other group also has but one clan but a much larger
population. Unlike many clans in Korea, the larger Chi family did not
remain congregated in and around its clan seat but dispersed fairly
evenly around the peninsula.