Ko (柯)
A Taiwanese surname.
柯 K'o
- Zhuyin
- ㄎㄜ
- Pinyin
- kē
- Wade-Giles
- K'o
- Further spellings of 柯
- Ke, Ko
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Kua Elsewhere MOE reads the character kho.
- Hakka (Sixian)
- ko²⁴
- Rank in Taiwan
- 46th most common surname, roughly 0.44% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
'Axe handle'; 'branch'; it also denotes a kind of stone oak.
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to Ke Lu (柯盧), a ruler of the state of Wu descended from Zhongyong; his descendants took Ke as their surname. A second account connects it with the Jiang (姜) clan of Qi. Hall name (堂號): 濟陽堂.
Saying it 我姓柯 — wǒ xìng kē (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄎㄜ), "my family name is 柯"
Sources: rank and share, 內政部 全國姓名統計分析 (Ministry of the Interior, National Name Statistics), data as of 2023-06-30. Taiwanese Hokkien readings, 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi), 百家姓 appendix. Hakka, 教育部臺灣客語辭典 (MOE Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka), 百家姓表, Sixian (四縣腔).