O Family History
O Surname Meaning
Korean: written 오 in Chinese characters 吳. Historically, there were two Chinese characters for the O surname, but by the late Koryŏ period (14th century AD), one of them had disappeared. Some records indicate that there are as many as 210 different clans for the remaining character, but only sixteen can be positively documented. All sixteen of these clans originate from the same ancestor O Ch’ŏm (吳 瞻), who migrated to Korea from China during the reign of Shilla's King Chijŭng (500–14 AD).
O is a common surname throughout Korea. Compare Oh Japanese (Ō): written 王 ‘king’. It is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese surname Wang and is mostly borne by Japanese of Chinese descent or Chinese long-term residents in Japan.
Compare Oh Chinese: Teochew or Hokkien or Taiwanese form of the surname 胡 see Hu. This pronunciation is found in eastern Guangdong province, Fujian province, and Taiwan, from where people migrated to Singapore, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Chinese: Teochew or Hokkien or Taiwanese form of the surnames 鄔 and 烏 see Wu. This pronunciation is found in eastern Guangdong province, Fujian province, and Taiwan, from where people migrated to Singapore, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Chinese: possibly a Cantonese form of the surname 柯 see Ke. Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 鄂 see E. Vietnamese (Ổ): from the Chinese surname 鄔 see Wu.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022