Tsao (曹)
A Taiwanese surname.
曹 Ts'ao
- Zhuyin
- ㄘㄠˊ
- Pinyin
- cáo
- Wade-Giles
- Ts'ao
- Further spellings of 曹
- Tsao, Tsau, Cao
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tâi-lô)
- Tsô
- Hakka (Sixian)
- co¹¹
- Rank in Taiwan
- 59th most common surname, roughly 0.22% of the population (2023 Ministry of the Interior figures)
What the character means
In old usage, a government office or an official; it also means 'group, peers'.
Where the surname comes from
Tradition traces it to Shu Zhenduo (叔振鐸), a son of King Wen of Zhou enfeoffed at Cao (曹) in present-day Shandong; when Song conquered Cao, its people took the state's name.
Saying it 我姓曹 — wǒ xìng cáo (ㄨㄛˇ ㄒㄧㄥˋ ㄘㄠˊ), "my family name is 曹"
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).