'Fujian' originates from Chinese, specifically the characters '福建', where the first character 'Fu' is associated with the region around Fuzhou and the second 'Jian' with Jianzhou (historical prefectures). The modern English form follows Hanyu Pinyin romanization ('Fujian').

'Fujian' was represented in older romanizations (such as Wade–Giles/postal) as 'Fukien', and with the international adoption of Hanyu Pinyin the spelling 'Fujian' became standard in modern English.

Initially the name designated an administrative region formed from places called Fuzhou and Jianzhou; over time it came to denote the modern province and, by extension, its people and dialect groups.