Cao
A surname most likely of Chinese origin in modern use, though it also appears as a romanized Irish Gaelic name in older records.
The #1,989 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,022 Americans shares it.
Etymology
As a Chinese surname, Cao is the standard pinyin romanization of several Chinese family names written with different characters, the most common being 曹. In Irish records, older Gaelic names beginning with Ó Cáo- can also appear in forms like Cao, but those are not the usual source of the modern standalone surname. Because the same spelling can reflect different naming traditions, the surname is best treated as having more than one possible origin depending on family history.
History
In the United States today, Cao is most often associated with Chinese immigration and transliteration practices. The spelling also has a separate historical life in Irish surname scholarship, where it can appear in abbreviated or variant forms of Gaelic names such as Ó Caoáin/Keane-type names in older sources. For a given family, the true origin usually depends on ethnic background and the country of the earliest known records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same three-letter spelling can point to entirely different surname traditions, which is one reason genealogists always check the earliest records, not just the modern form.
From the historical record
“FALK 1 (Ger.) Falcon, Hawk [Ger. falke, FALKE ) O.H.Ger. /a/cAo] FARGE (Fr.) Dweller by a Forge [Dial. Fr. farge, a forge ; Lat. fabrica, a workshop] FARGUES (Fr.) a S. French place-name =”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Cao
- Cao Cao (155–220)
- Cao Xueqin (b. 1724)
- Cao Pi (187–226)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.