Jī (姬) was the ancestral name of the Zhou dynasty which ruled China between the 11th and 3rd centuries BC.

The character is composed of the radicals 女 (Old Chinese: nra, "woman") and 𦣞 (OC: ɢ(r)ə, "chin").

[2] A popular theory in recent Chinese scholarship has suggested that they represented two important clans – the Ji originally centered on the Fen River in Shanxi and the Jiang around the Wei River in Shaanxi – whose union produced the Zhou state ruled by Old Duke Danfu, although the theory remains problematic.

[2] In the family hymns recorded in the Classic of Poetry, the Ji (姬) family is traced from the miraculous birth of the Xia dynasty culture hero and court official Houji caused by his mother's stepping into a footprint left by the supreme god Shangdi.

[4] It is sometimes listed as one of the Eight Great Surnames of Chinese Antiquity, replacing Ren [zh] when present.