Chao
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Meaning
varies by character: often 超, 'to surpass, leap over', or 潮, 'tide'; a pinyin-era given name
How popular is Chao around the world?
In the United States, Chao is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source. In Spain, 181 residents are named Chao, ranked 5,034th among men, with a mean age of 38.5 years.
Chao is on the official records of Spain and Brazil.
United States
under 5 a year
In the United States, Chao is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Chao has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Spain
1 in 220,000
In Spain, 181 residents are named Chao, ranked 5,034th among men, with a mean age of 38.5 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Brazil
At the 2022 census, 70 people in Brazil were named Chao, ranked 52,921st, with a median age of 48.
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Not on the record in Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Chao
Most people given the name Chao in the United States were born between 1970 and 1989. The Chao you meet today is most often in his 30s or 40s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Chao deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Chao truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Chao fits with your family’s names and surname.
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