Choe

Choi
Family name
Pronunciation	Ch'oe, Tchoi, Chye
Meaning	pinnacle, top, most, mountain
Region of origin	Korea
Language(s) of origin	Korean
Related names	Cui, Thôi

Choi
Hangul
Hanja
Revised Romanization	Choe
McCune–Reischauer	Ch'oe

Choi is a common Korean family name. In English speaking countries, it is most often anglicized Choi, and sometimes also Choe. Ethnic Koreans in the former USSR prefer the form Tsoi (Tsoy) especially as a transcription of the Cyrillic Цой.

There are roughly 160 clans of Chois. Most of these are quite small. However, Choi is the 4th most common surname in Korea. The largest by far is the Gyeongju Choi clan, with a 2000 South Korean population of 976,820. The Gyeongju Choe claim the Silla scholar Choe Chi-won as their founder.

Choi (Hangul: 최) is written with the Hanja character , meaning "a governor who oversees the land and the mountain". The surname Choi also means mountain or pinnacle.

Choi (崔), originally written in Hanja, is derived from the combination of 2 ancient Chinese characters:

In Korean, 최 is usually pronounced [tɕʰwe] except by some older speakers who pronounce it [tɕʰø] (this vowel sound is similar to the German ö [ø]). In English, it is most often pronounced /ˈtʃɔɪ/ "Choy".

崔 is Romanized as Cuī and pronounced [tsʰwéi] in Mandarin Chinese. It is Cheuī [tsʰɵ́y] in Cantonese and Chhui [tsʰuí] in Hokkien.

...
Wikipedia