Cao (Chinese surname)

Cao is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 曹 (Cáo). It is listed 26th in the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames poem. Cao is romanized as "Tsao" in Wade-Giles (Ts'ao), which is widely adopted in Taiwan, although the apostrophe is often omitted in practice. It is romanized "Cho", "Tso", and "Chaw" in Cantonese; "Chou", "Chô", and "Chháu" in Hokkien; and "Chau", "Chow" in Teochew.The Vietnamese surname based on it is now written "Tào". It is romanized "Zau" or "Dzau" in Shanghainese.

For the Chinese surname Gao, written Cao in Vietnamese, see Cao (Vietnamese surname).
曹
RomanisationCao / Tsao
Origin
Meaning
  1. plaintiff and defendant
  2. fodder
  3. division department of the central government in ancient times
  4. official
  5. group, team

Distribution

Cao is the 30th-most-common surname in mainland China as of 2019[1] and the 58th-most-common surname on Taiwan.

In the United States, the romanization Cao is a fairly common surname, ranked 7,425th during the 1990 census but 2,986th during the year 2000 census.[2] It is one of the few Chinese surnames whose pinyin transcription is already more common than other variants. The Wade transcription Tsao was only ranked 16,306th during the 1990 census and 12,580th during the year 2000 one. The Cantonese transcription is actually becoming less common, falling from 7,638th place to 9,925th.[2] The Korean name Cho is more common still than Cao, befitting its frequency in Korea itself, where it makes up about 2% of the South Korean population: see Cho (Korean name).

History

Cáo's former pronunciations have been reconstructed as *N-tsˤu in Old Chinese and Dzaw in Middle Chinese.[3] It originated from the Zhou-era Duchy of Cao founded by Zhenduo. The later claim that Cao is said to have been descended from the Yellow Emperor via the Zhuanxu Emperor should not be confused with the Chinese surname Gao or the Vietnamese surname Cao. It was the origin of the modern Cāo and Zhu families. Yan (顏) was from Cao (曹).[4]

  • Granted to Cao Guan, taking the official as his surname. It is said that during the reign of Zhuanxu, Gonggong competed with Zhuanxu for the "sovereignty" and a fight broke out. Gonggong tried to flood Zhuanxu by releasing water, but was killed by Zhuanxu. However, the descendants of Gonggong still served as water officials and held water control positions in the tribal alliance. During the Xia Dynasty, flood control heroes Gun and Yu appeared again. Although Gun made great efforts, he was not successful in controlling the floods. Later, Yu summarized the lessons learned from Gun's failure to control floods by building embankments and blocking the flow, and switched to the method of dredging rivers and diverting blocked rivers (dredging stagnant rivers) to make floods flow smoothly from small to large and into large rivers. , finally controlled the flood and turned water damage into water conservancy. When Yu was controlling the floods, Lu Zhong's fifth son (also said to be the sixth son) An Zheng was at the right time. He was given the title of Cao Guan because of his contribution to assisting Xia Yu in controlling the floods. Cao Guan was an official who guarded slaves in a "circular land" prison. This was not a small official in the slave-owning regime whose main function was to suppress slaves at that time. An later took Guan as his surname. This is the beginning of the surname Cao. Cao An first lived in Caoshui, Lingbao County, Henan Province. This is the place where Cao An received his surname.
  • Another origin is that it is derived from the ancestral name of a descendant of Zhurong, Yan An, the founder of the state of Zhu, later named Zou, and located in modern Zouxian, Shandong. After the state was annexed by Chu during the Spring and Autumn period Cao (曹) was adopted as a surname by its former subjects.[5]
  • from the name of a state, State of Cao (曹国), (located in Dingtao in Shandong province) granted to Zhenduo, the thirteenth son of the virtuous King Wen of Zhou. After the state was annexed by Song, Cao (曹) was adopted as a surname.
  • Taken as a surname by the Sogdians when they came to China and became one of the "Nine Sogdian Surnames", also known as 'nine surnames of Zhaowu'.

Other surnames

Cao can also serve as the romanization for the Chinese surnames Cāo (操), Cǎo (草), and Cào (鄵) as well; however, they are not nearly so common. They were both unlisted among the Hundred Family Surnames and do not appear among any list of the current popular surnames.

Cāo was likely *tsʰˤawʔ in Old Chinese and TshawX in Middle Chinese; its original meaning was "grasp".[3] It originated from the given name of one of Cao Cao's descendants after the establishment of Cao Wei. Its modern use as a curse word depends on a recent homophone and is unrelated to the surname.

Cǎo was likely *tsʰˤuʔ in Old Chinese, but had become a homophonous TshawX by Middle Chinese; its meaning is still "grass" and similar plants.[3]

List of people with the surname

Historical figures
See also: Cao Wei family trees and Cao Cao § Family

Modern figures

See also

References
  1. "新京报 - 好新闻，无止境".
  2. US Census Bureau. Op. cit. Public Broadcasting Service. "How Popular Is Your Last Name?" Accessed 6 Apr 2012.
  3. Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. "Baxter–Sagart Old Chinese Reconstruction". Archived from the original on September 27, 2013.  (1.93 MB). 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.
  4. "Gan Heritage Centre China Chapter - Gan Heritage Centre". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  5. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
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