In old time, Qiu is often written as “邱”or “丘”. The name was change from “丘”to “邱”in the year1725 when the Qing Dynasty (清) Emperor crowned Confucious as Ultimate Holly One (至圣). In addition, he ordered the Qiu(丘) family to change their name to “邱”as “丘”was confucious name. When the Qing Dynasty ended, some of the Qiu family members did change their family name back to”丘” but many continue to use “邱”.
The origin of Qiu is more complicated the Zeng(曾), there are generally 3 different version of the story:
1、The Qiu family is originated from the family Jiang”姜”。During the Empire of Zhou”西周”，the Minister Lu Shang ”吕尚”from the family Jiang assisted the emperor to conquer the Shang “商” and was given the land at Qi “齐”. He then creates the kingdom Qi “齐国”, and made “Yin Qiu” “营丘”as the capital。Some of his descendant used the name of the land as their family name. In history, they are usually known as the True Origin of Qiu “丘姓正宗”.
2、There is another saying that the name came from places that people leave. Some said that in all countrymen of Chen Kingdom”陈国” which was located at Wan Qiu “宛丘”, and Zhu Kingdom “邾国” which is located at Ruo Qiu “弱丘”, use Qiu "丘"as their family name.
3、The name were said to be commonly used by the minority tribe. They simplify their name from name such as You Qiu”有丘氏”, Qiu Lin“丘林氏”,Qiu Dun”丘敦氏”to “丘”.
The link between Zeng and Qiu started in Fujian. After the Zeng family shifted to Fujian, Zeng Gong Liang's (曾公亮) grandson Zeng Ming曾明，was adopted by the Qiu “丘”family. His descendant continues to recognize Zeng Zi as their ancestor. That branch of Qiu family also uses the same generation name used by the Zeng family from Long Shang. Till now, the members of the two families from Fujian still treat each other as one family.
The Qiu family from Long Shan “龙山”have grown over the years and many have migrated to South East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippine and Indonesia. Despite the fact that they have leaved home, the tie between the two families remain strong in these foreign countries. They have setup many organisations in these places such as Singapore Chan Khoo Kong Huan, Malaysia Sarawak Chan Khoo Association, and Philippine Chan Khoo Association.
