Ke (surname)

Ke (Chinese: 柯; pinyin: Kē) is a Chinese surname. It originally appeared on the Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2006 was no longer one of the top 100 most common surnames. A 2013 study found that it was the 145th most common surname, shared by 1.06 million people or 0.080% of the population, with the province most being Hubei. It is also spelled as Quah, Qua, Kua, Kuah, Kwa, Ke, Ker, Ko, Koa, Kok, or O in English, owing to variations in dialect (for instance, O derives from the Cantonese pronunciation of the character) or romanisation system (compare Ke, which derives from Pinyin, with Ko, which derives from Wade-Giles.)

Origin

There are several origins of this last name:

1. the descendants of Duke Ke Lu (柯盧) of the State of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period;
2. the descendants of a tribe in the Northern Wei dynasty whose surname was originally Keba (柯拔) but was simplified to Ke;
3. the descendants of the Qiang tribe or the Xianbei tribe with the last name Ke.

One website lists it as originating from the town of Han in Zhejiang Province while another states it originated in Jiyang Prefecture (located in present-day Dingtao County, Shandong Province) during the Jin dynasty (266–420).

Prominent people with the family name 柯

• Cua Yi Lam, baptized as Domingo Lamco, patrilineal ancestor of Jose Rizal, Philippine national hero
• Ke Mengde, a Song dynasty poet
• Ke Jiusi (柯九思), a Yuan dynasty officer
• Ke Qian, a Ming dynasty scholar
• Ke Weizhen, a Qing dynasty poet
• Blackie Ko Shou Liang (柯受良), modern director, actor, stuntman
• Alan Ke You Lun (柯有綸) a Taiwanese singer and actor; son of Blackie Ko Shou Liang
• Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), Taiwanese politician
• Danny Quah Professor of economics, London School of Economics
• Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew
• Ko Chen-tung (柯震東), a Taiwanese actor and singer
• Ko Chia-yen (柯佳嬿), a Taiwanese actress
• Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), mayor of Taipei
• Ke Jie (柯洁), a Chinese World Go Champion
• Quah Chow Cheung (柯昭璋), a Hong Kongese commissioner
• Simon Ko, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of China
• Quah Kim Lye, a Singaporean footballer
• Quah Kim Song (柯金松), a Singaporean footballer
• Quah Ting Wen (柯婷文), a Singaporean swimmer
• Quah Zheng Wen (柯政文), a Singaporean swimmer
• Quah Jing Wen (柯敬文), a Singaporean swimmer
• Ke Qingshi (柯庆施), senior Chinese politician
• Quah Nian King (柯年庆), prominent entrepreneur in Malaysia and Singapore

Prominent people with the family name Kha

Kha is a Vietnamese variant of the family name Ke (柯)

• Kha Mỹ Vân, a Vietnamese model

See also

• Hundred Family Surnames
• Chinese name

External links

• Origin of surname Ke, Ker and Quah
• Google group post on Chinese surname Ke number 164