Chow (surname)


Chow is a Chinese and English surname.

Origins

As an English surname, Chow originated as a nickname, from Middle English chowe, meaning "chough" or "jackdaw".
As a Chinese surname, Chow may be a romanisation of the pronunciations in different varieties of Chinese of the following surnames, listed based on their Pinyin romanisation :

Statistics

According to statistics cited by Patrick Hanks, there were 1,459 people on the island of Great Britain and 49 on the island of Ireland with the surname Chow as of 2011. In 1881 there had been 19 people with the surname in Great Britain, mainly in Yorkshire.
The 2010 United States census found 17,059 people with the surname Chow, making it the 2,122nd-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 15,650 in the 2000 Census. In both censuses, slightly less than nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified as Asian, between three and four per cent as White, and between three and four percent as Hispanic. It was the 72nd-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 Census who identified as Asian.

People

Chinese surname Zhōu ()

Chinese surname Zōu ()

Chinese surname Zhào ()

Chinese surname Cáo ()

Chinese surname Qiáo ()

Chinese surname Qiú ()

Other

People with other surnames spelt Chow, or for whom the Chinese characters of their names are unavailable:

Fictional characters