Xǔ (許/许), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects. The surname is frequently spelled this way in Malaysia and Singapore, where many descendants of Chinese migrants can trace their roots to Southern Min-speaking areas of China, namely Fujian and eastern Guangdong.[2] Other spellings of the Southern Min pronunciation include Co, Ko, and Kho.
Gāo (高), spelled Koh based on its Cantonese pronunciation
Gù (顧/顾), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects
Gū (辜), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects
Gŭ (古), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects
Ke (柯), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in multiple varieties of Chinese including Hakka and Southern Min
Kòu (寇), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in multiple varieties of Chinese including Mandarin and Southern Min
Huáng (黃), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects[citation needed]
Hao (郝), spelled Koh based on its pronunciation in various Southern Min dialects[citation needed]
Koh was the 10th-most common surname among ethnic Chinese in Singapore as of 1997 (ranked by English spelling, rather than by Chinese characters). Roughly 48,100 people, or 1.9% of the Chinese Singaporean population at the time, bore the surname Koh.[6]
According to the 2000 South Korean census, there were 435,839 people in 135,488 households with the surname spelled Go in Revised Romanization. Among these, 325,950 people in 100,954 households were members of the Jeju Go clan.[7] This surname is only infrequently spelled as Koh in South Korea: in a study based on a sample of applications for South Korean passports in 2007, 11.4% of applicants with this surname chose to spell it as Koh in the Latin alphabet, against 67.5% who chose to spell it as Ko, and 18.3% as Go.[8]
The 2010 United States Census found 3,595 people with the surname Koh, making it the 9,090th-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 2,893 (10,226th-most-common) in the 2000 Census. In both censuses, slightly fewer than nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified Asian.[9]
People
Classical music
Koh Bunya (江文也; 1910–1983), Taiwanese composer educated in Japan, often known by the Japanese pronunciation of his Chinese name Chiang Wen-yeh
^Jones, Russel (August 1959). "Chinese Names: Notes on the use of surnames & personal names by the Chinese in Malaya". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 32 (187): 3–84. JSTOR41505683.
^Зборник о Србима у Хрватској. Vol. 3. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 1995. pp. 374, 382. OCLC22916628.
^"행정구역(구시군)/성씨·본관별 가구 및 인구" [Family names by administrative region (district, city, county): separated by bon-gwan, households and individuals]. Korean Statistical Information Service. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
^성씨 로마자 표기 방안: 마련을 위한 토론회 [Plan for romanisation of surnames: a preparatory discussion]. National Institute of the Korean Language. 25 June 2009. p. 57. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
