[1][2] It mostly appears in Central and South China (including Hong Kong and Macao) where it is transliterated as Lai or Lei (from Cantonese).

[4] Around the Yangtze River, any Jiuli (九黎) people got surname Li (黎) as a tribal name.

In Ancient China, descendants of Shaohao were surnamed Li on Licheng County (黎城).

During the Xia dynasty, descendants of Emperor Yao were surnamed Li (黎) in Licheng County (黎城).

[citation needed] In Vietnam, some Chinese Li (黎) families changed their surname to Vietnamese Hà or Hồ (胡).