Ou (歐)
A Taiwanese surname.
歐 Ou
- Zhuyin
- ㄡ
- Pinyin
- ōu
- Wade-Giles
- Ou
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Au Au is the colloquial (白讀) reading, while io is the character's literary (文讀) reading.
- Hakka (Sixian)
- eu²⁴
- Rank in Taiwan
- 75th most common surname, roughly 0.16% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
Short for Europe (歐洲); in classical texts it means 'to sing' (like 謳).
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to the royal house of Yue: after Chu conquered Yue, a son of King Wujiang (無疆) received a fief by Mount Ouyu (歐餘山) in present-day Zhejiang, and his descendants took the surnames Ou and Ouyang. Hall name (堂號): 平陽堂.
Saying it 我姓歐 — wǒ xìng ōu (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄡ), "my family name is 歐"
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).