Lai (surname)

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Lai (traditional Chinese: 賴; simplified Chinese: 赖; pinyin: Lài) is a common Chinese surname that is pronounced similarly in both Mandarin and Hakka dialects. The meaning of the character used in the Lai (賴) surname is "depend on; trust in; rely on". Conversely the words, 無賴 literally translated to "without Lai" which means "undependable, rascal or scoundrel".

It is also a Hokkien (Southern Fujian)/ Minnan (Southern Min) surname that is romanized as Lua, Nai or Nua. In Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia there are Lai migrants from southern Fujian Province who are usually surnamed Lua/ Luah, Loa (romanized from Hokkien / Minnan in Southern Min dialect) or Lye (romanized from Hakka dialect) for the Hakka dialect groups. In Sri Lanka, Lye is a common surname among Sri Lankan Malays of Peranakan Chinese descent.^[1]

In Indonesia, most of the Indonesians of Chinese descent changed their surname to an Indonesian surname to comply with 'Cabinet Presidium Decision 127 of 1966' laws during President Suharto's despotic rule. However, they usually change to surnames with the same sound or a surname which contains a part of the original surname, hence the Indonesian Lai surname has evolved into Laya, Lais, or Lasuki.