Shaw was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, Qing China as the youngest of the six sons of Shanghai textile merchant Shaw Yuh Hsuen () (1866–1921) and his wife Wang Shun Xiang () (1871–1939). His name at birth was Shao Renleng (), which was later changed to Shao Yifu (邵逸夫) because he thought that the average Chinese person would not know how to pronounce the character ("léng"). There are a number of explanations given for the use of his English name Run Run Shaw, but Shaw reportedly said that it was simply a transcription of his birth name Shao Renleng in the Ningbo dialect.