What was the real name of Confucius?

Confucius real name is Kong Qiu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius

Confucius c 551-479bc real name Kong Qiu

http://www.biography.com/people/confucius-9254926

Nice one! Many people think his name was Kong Fuzi, but that means Master Kong (not as in the title given to Western boys not old enough to be Misters, but in the sense of adept).

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you on this one, Baloo. Zonko's reference first gives the forms Kong Fuzi and K'ung-fu-tzu and Purcy's spells it Kongfuzi. I've long understood that his family name was Kong or Kung or K'ung, however one tranliterates it, and that later he became Master, or Teacher, Kong, along the lines of a Jewish Rebbe: "Rebbe Moshe," for example. It's like Mohandas or Mahatma Gandhi. Unless I'm mistaken.

Maybe Friday night or Saturday I'll find time to look for some references.

Whatever. I just used 'adept' as an indication of learning rather than being the junior form of Mister it has become.

Kong Qiu, or the older version, Kong Ch'iu, was Confucius' "real," or birth, name. K'ung-fu-tzu was his family name-honorific, still very "real," after he achieved fame as a philosopher.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kong%20qiu?r=14
Then click on through the links that come up.

Columbia University treats the subject in greater detail.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/ort/confucianism.htm

Thanks for bringing up the subject, Baloo, and for pointing out that he was born Kong Qiu.

I would hope all readers realize any Chinese name written in the Roman alphabet is merely an attempt to represent the sounds of Chinese characters.