The Xiao surname (肖)

How do you pronounce the surname 肖?

As a surname, 肖 is pronounced Xiāo in Mandarin (written Xiao without tone marks); a rarer reading is Xiào.

How is Xiao written in Chinese?

It is written 肖 in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

How common is the Xiao surname?

In the Ministry of Public Security's 2020 national name report (household registration), Xiao ranks 33rd.

What are the other English spellings of Xiao?

The same Chinese surname is spelled differently by region and era — check all of them when searching immigration or overseas records:

• Hanyu Pinyin (Mainland China): Xiao
• Wade–Giles (Taiwan, older usage): Hsiao
• Cantonese (Hong Kong, overseas): Jyutping ciu3
• Korean: 초

How do I build a Xiao family tree?

Start with your own branch: record the ancestors you are sure of, then parents, siblings and descendants, generation by generation, with dates, spouses, migrations and burial places. Then invite relatives to fill in their own branches.

The KinTraces genealogy workbench lets a family build a Xiao genealogy together online — relatives claim their own entries, adoptions and dual heirship are recorded on both sides, every change is logged, and the tree can be printed as a traditional Chinese genealogy (vertical register, Su or Ou style, pagoda chart) or a Western Register / Pedigree, or exported as GEDCOM.

What are Xiao generation names (zibei)?

Many Chinese lineages share a generation poem: each generation takes one character from it in their given names, so cousins of the same generation share a character. Different Xiao branches use different poems — there can be dozens for one surname — so a poem from another branch cannot simply be borrowed.

The most reliable source is your branch's own genealogy; otherwise, collect names from elders, gravestones and ancestral halls, look for the shared character in each generation, and compare with genealogies from the same ancestral place.