Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
Ao comes from Mandarin, and ultimately from Chinese.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2018. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ao through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 18
- 18 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2023
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #12,167 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 12,167 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 372 as a first name in 2020; 800 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ao’s family of names
In English usage, Ao as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with AU. In Japanese usage, Ao is a Roman-alphabet rendering of 明和. In English usage, Ao as a surname was borrowed from the Chinese form 敖.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: across languages.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 6
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Ao
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Ao, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Tao
“resembling a peach; symbol of long life” · “one who will have a long life”
>99% boys
Yam
Yam is a surname from Cantonese.
>99% boys
Tanjiro
“the prized second-born son”
>99% boys
Yuan
Yuan is a surname from Mandarin.
79% boys · 21% girls
Tian
Tian is a surname from Mandarin. It is used in English and Tagalog.
94% boys · 6% girls
Lui
Lui is a surname from Cantonese. It is used in English and Hawaiian.
>99% boys
Shen
“a spiritual man; one who is introspective”
>99% boys
Jin
“a superior woman” · “a golden child; one who is elegant”
95% boys · 5% girls