It is also spelled in Wade–Giles as Ssŭtu or in the Mathews system as Szŭtu, and romanised from Cantonese as Szeto, Seto, or Sitou, or from Taishanese as Soohoo or Soho.

[1] It originates from the ancient Chinese title Situ, which can be translated as "Minister over the Masses".

[citation needed] According to data from the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China in 2010, Situ was China's fourth-most common compound surname, behind Ouyang, Shangguan, and Huangfu.

The Hanyu Pinyin spelling Situ became more common between 2000 and 2010, while Szeto, Seto, and Soohoo remained at roughly the same rankings during that time period.

Other spellings such as Ssutu, Szutu, Sitou, and Seetoo occurred fewer than 100 times in census data.