Chinese surname · rank 313
郜
郜 is read as gào.
gào
Simplified and traditional 郜
Earth
Time: Western Zhou state-name tradition, Spring and Autumn destruction-by-Song surname formation layer, Han Gaocheng county memory, and later modern distribution evidence; Western Zhou tradition, 1046-771 BCE
Place: Gao state and Gaocheng around present-day Chengwu, Shandong; Jin place Gao around present-day Fushan, Shanxi; Jingzhao commandery as a later prestige locality in surname summaries; modern concentrations reported in Henan, Shanxi, Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Hubei, and Inner Mongolia
Origin note
Gao is read gao as a surname. Its best-attested traditional layer is an old state-name surname: surname sources connect Gao with the Western Zhou state of Gao, whose center is placed around present-day Chengwu, Shandong, and say that after Gao was absorbed in the Spring and Autumn period, descendants used the former state name as a surname. A second local layer comes from a Jin place also called Gao around present-day Fushan, Shanxi, so some Gao lines are explained as place-name surnames rather than state-name descendants. Modern summaries also leave room for a small number of multiethnic changed-surname branches. Because older sources differ on the exact royal son behind the Gao state, this page keeps the secure elements: Ji-surname Zhou tradition, Gao state or place name, Shandong Chengwu and Shanxi Fushan locations, and later changed-surname layers.
Historical figures
Historical figures to enrich
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