郭 (Guō): Guo (surname)

Meanings

1 Guo (surname)
2 outer city wall

Characters

郭

guō

outer city wall; surname

Examples

郭是中国最常见的姓氏之一。

Guō shì Zhōngguó zuì chángjiàn de xìngshì zhīyī.

Guo is one of the most common surnames in China.

我们班有三个姓郭的同学。

Wǒmen bān yǒu sān gè xìng Guō de tóngxué.

There are three students with the surname Guo in our class.

Tips

history

The character 郭 originally meant the outer wall of a city (城郭). As a surname, it ranks among the top 20 in China with over 15 million bearers.

Components

radical

阝 yì

city (right-side form of 邑)

Right city radical — the side-form of 邑 used only on the right of a character. The indexing radical, marking 郭 as a place/settlement word. Anchors the entry in the city/region family with 都 capital, 部 division, 郊 outskirts, 邦 nation. The whole reads as 'wall + city' = outer city rampart.

phonetic

享 xiǎng

enjoy; sacrificial offering (here phonetic)

Left 享 is a graphic stand-in for the original phonetic — a stylized depiction of a walled tower viewed from outside. Originally 郭 depicted the outer rampart with watchtowers at its corners; the modern form preserves that tower-shape on the left. Supplies both the sound and the city-wall imagery.