Cho
A rare surname in English-language records that may reflect a shortened or adapted form of an older continental or Norman family name, though its exact origin is uncertain.
The #1,038 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 9,219 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The provided historical material does not give a secure derivation for CHO itself. One 19th-century source appears to treat it as related to a longer Norman surname form, possibly involving a name like Cauv, Cavell, or a similar medieval French shape, but the OCR is damaged and the reading is not certain. Because of that, the safest conclusion is that CHO is an uncertain surname, probably a shortened or altered form from a French or Norman source rather than an originally English word-name.
History
The sources suggest the name was discussed in connection with Norman families in counties such as York, Nottinghamshire, and elsewhere in medieval England, but the evidence in the excerpt is too corrupted to reconstruct the pedigree confidently. In modern usage, CHO is far more commonly encountered as an East Asian surname, especially in romanizations of Korean and Chinese names, though that modern distribution is not what the historical excerpt is describing.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In old surname books, badly scanned text can make a seemingly simple name like CHO almost impossible to read with certainty.
From the historical record
“CHO CUV and Egorton. The family of De Toesni was loval, clcjci- iiiid from an imcle of Piollo. Choulcs. See CowLVS, a form of C-Auh or Caiil.v.”
— The Norman People and their existing descendants in the British dominions and the United StatesNotable people named Cho
- Jo Jung-suk (b. 1980)
- John Cho (b. 1972)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.