Cáo is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname (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 "Chow" in Hokkien; and "Chau", "Chow" in Teochew. It is romanized "Zau" or "Dzau" in Shanghainese.

Distribution

Cao is the 30th-most-common surname in mainland China as of 2019 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. 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. 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. It originated from the Zhou-era Duchy of Cao founded by Shu Zhenduo of Cao. 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).

Other surnames

Cao can also serve as the romanization for the Chinese surnames Cāo, Cǎo , and Cào 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". 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.

List of people with the surname

Historical figures

Modern figures