Chao is a surname in various cultures. It is the Pinyin spelling of two Chinese surnames ( and ), the WadeâÂÂGiles spelling of two others ( or the much rarer , both spelled in Pinyin as Zhào), and a regional or other spelling of two additional Chinese surnames ( Cáo and Zhà Âu). It is also a Galician and Portuguese surname.
This surname is written with a character meaning "dawn" (). According to traditional sources including Fengsu Tongyi, Yuanhe Xingzuan, Xingshi Kaolüe (), and the surnames/clans section () of the Tongzhi encyclopedia, both this surname and another written with a character also meaning "dawn" () originated from personal names of people during the Spring and Autumn period, and were adopted by their descendants as surnames, following which some descendants changed their surname from one character to the other. The latter surname originated from , a son of King Jing of Zhou (544âÂÂ519 BC), while the former originated from Shi Chao () of the state of Wei. The biography of Chao Cuo in the Records of the Grand Historian stated that the surname originated in the Nanyang Commandery, specifically in the ancient region of Xi'e.
In Sino-Korean pronunciation, those characters are both read Jo, but are not used as surnames in modern Korea (the Korean surname Jo is written with different characters). In Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation, it is read Triá»Âu; the spelling is distinct from Triá»Âu, the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the surname Zhào (è¶Â/èµµ).
It is listed on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.
Another Chinese surname, homophonous with the above in Mandarin, is written with a character meaning "nest" (). Traditional sources note two different origins for this surname. The () states that it refers to the legendary Youchao, who purportedly lived in a nest high up in a tree before he invented houses; his name literally means "having a nest". The () states that it originated as a toponymic surname referring to the state of Chao; following the defeat of the state of Chao by the state of Wu during the latter part of the Spring and Autumn period, some of the people of the defeated state adopted Chao as their surname.
In Sino-Korean pronunciation, this character is read So, but it is not used as a surname in modern Korea (the Korean surname So is written with different characters). In Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation, it is read SÃÂ o.
Chao is also an alternative spelling of four other Chinese surnames, listed below by their spelling in Pinyin; see those articles for the traditional origins of those surnames:
Chao may also be a Portuguese and Galician surname, derived from Galician-Portuguese ', meaning "plain" or "plateau".
In the Third National Population Census of the People's Republic of China in 1982, Cháo meaning "dawn" () was found to be the 361st-most-common surname, while Cháo meaning "nest" () was 420th-most-common. Zhào () was the seventh-most-common surname, but it is not spelled Chao in mainland China. In Taiwan, where that latter surname frequently is spelled Chao, it was the 43rd-most-common surname in 2005, according to a survey of household registration data by the Ministry of the Interior that year.
In Spain, statistics of the stated that there were 2,703 people with the surname Chao in Galicia, making it the 244th-most-common surname there. The surname could be found in 68 of the 313 municipalities of Galicia. Municipalities with particularly high concentrations of bearers of the surname included Muras (61 people; 2.99% of the local population), Ourol (69; 2.45%), and Pedrafita do Cebreiro (52; 1.72%), all in the Province of Lugo (as were all but one of the ten municipalities with the highest concentrations of bearers of the surname).
According to statistics cited by Patrick Hanks, there were 143 people on the island of Great Britain and none on the island of Ireland with the surname Chao as of 2011. The surname was not present on the island of Great Britain in 1881.
The 2010 United States census found 10,398 people with the surname Chao, making it the 3,432nd-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 8,633 (3,769th-most-common) in the 2000 census. In both censuses, slightly less than nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified as Asian, between five and seven per cent as Hispanic, and between three and five percent as White. It was the 135th-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 census who identified as Asian.
Fictional characters:
People with other surnames spelled Chao, or for whom the Chinese characters of their names are unavailable:
Fictional characters: