姚 (Yáo): surname Yao

Meanings

1 surname Yao
2 handsome; good-looking

Characters

姚

yáo

surname Yao; handsome (literary)

Examples

HSK 2

他姓姚。

Tā xìng Yáo.

His surname is Yao.

HSK 4

姚明是中国最有名的篮球运动员之一。

Yáo Míng shì Zhōngguó zuì yǒumíng de lánqiú yùndòngyuán zhīyī.

Yao Ming is one of China's most famous basketball players.

Tips

history

姚 is one of the oldest Chinese surnames; tradition traces it to the legendary sage-king 舜 (Shùn), said to have lived in a place called 姚墟 (Yáoxū). The 女 radical reflects its very ancient lineage - early surnames were often written with 女 because clan identity passed through the maternal line.

culture

Most famous modern bearer: 姚明 (Yáo Míng, b. 1980), 7'6" Houston Rockets center and Hall-of-Famer who became China's most globally recognised athlete in the 2000s.

register

Beyond the surname, the 'handsome; good-looking' sense is literary and archaic, found in classical texts rather than modern speech.

Components

radical

女 nǚ

woman

Left woman radical (Kangxi #38) - a kneeling figure with folded arms, the classical glyph for a female person. Many ancient surnames carry this radical because they descended from matrilineal clan names: 姜, 姬, 嬴, 妫, and 姚 itself. Tells the reader immediately that 姚 is one of the venerable surname-from-clan-mother family.

phonetic

兆 zhào

omen; trillion (here phonetic)

Right 兆 supplies the sound - zhào drifted to yáo, regular Old-Chinese palatal shift. 兆 itself pictures divination cracks on a heated turtle plastron - hence 'omen' and 'trillion'. Same phonetic in 桃 (peach), 跳 (jump), 逃 (flee), 挑 (pick). 姚 is the clan name traced to legendary Emperor Shun, born by the Yao River; modern bearers include basketball star 姚明.