Luo

Where the name comes from

The surname comes from the state of Luo (羅), a small Zhou-era polity of the Yun (妘) clan that traced its descent to Zhurong. It sat first at Yicheng, near modern Xiangyang in Hubei, was later moved to Zhijiang, and was finally swallowed by Chu during the Spring and Autumn period; its displaced people settled around Changsha and took the dead state's name as their own. Yuzhang commandery, centred on modern Nanchang, became the clan's traditional seat.

The same name, spelled differently

A Chinese surname is a character, not a spelling. The Latin letters on a passport come from whichever dialect the name was written down from — so these are all 罗.

• LuoMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
• LoCantonese — Hong Kong and Guangdong
• LawCantonese — Hong Kong
• LowTeochew
• LokeHokkien

The character

Outside a name, 罗 is an ordinary word meaning gauze, net; to collect, to display.

Strokes

8

Radical

罒

Traditional

羅

As a word

luō