Mei
A short surname with several possible roots, most often linked either to an old nickname or to a local place-name tradition.
The #4,510 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 39,246 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical sources do not agree on a single origin for Mei. One line of explanation connects it with an old English word related to kinship, meaning something like “son-in-law” or more generally a relative; another treats it as a reduced or variant form tied to place-names or to surnames such as May and related continental forms. Some 19th-century writers also associated it with an Old English word glossed as “power,” but this is not secure enough to treat as certain.
History
The surname appears in records in several spellings, including Mei and forms that resemble May, Mee, and related continental variants. Because the name is so short, it was especially prone to being reshaped by spelling habits in different regions and record systems. In English-language surname books, it is usually treated as uncertain or local rather than as a clearly fixed occupational or patronymic name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Its brevity made Mei especially vulnerable to being confused with unrelated surnames that look almost identical in old records.
From the historical record
“MEI 222 M E P probability local, although I have hereto- fore derived it from medley-coat, a coat of many or mixed colours, a once favourite”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom