Family name origins & meanings
- Chinese :
there are two main branches of the Cao
line. One branch comes from Cao An, a great-grandson of the emperor
Zhuan Xu (26th century bc). A descendant named Cao Xie was
granted the state of Zhu when the Zhou dynasty came to power in 1122
bc. When Zhu was conquered by the state of Chu, many of the
Zhu aristocracy adopted a modified form of the character Zhu as their
surname (see Chu), but others kept the name Cao. The origin of
the other branch also involves the granting of a state at the
beginning of the Zhou dynasty: in 1122 bc Zhen Duo, a son of
Wen Wang, was granted the state of Cao, a name subsequently adopted by
his descendants. Other Romanized forms of this name include
Tso, Cho, Tsao and Chou. - Vietnamese : unexplained.
- Portuguese (Cão) and Galician equivalent of Spanish Cano.