Jia
贾 · traditionally 賈 — Jiǎ
The 64th most common surname in China
About 3.7 million bearers, 69th nationally (Ministry of Public Security ID-card database, 2008); Baidu Baike gives the same contemporary figure of nearly 3.7 million at 0.29% of the population. 64th on the Ministry of Public Security's 2019 top-100 ranking, published January 2020.
Where the name comes from
King Kang of Zhou enfeoffed Gongming — the youngest son of Tang Shuyu, founding ruler of Jin — at Jia, in what is now the country southwest of Xiangfen in Shanxi; he was styled the Earl of Jia (贾伯). The small state lasted until 678 BC, when the Quwo branch of Jin under Duke Wu absorbed it, and its people took the name of the lost state as their surname. A second Jia line began when the same former territory was given to Hu Shegu, son of Duke Wen's loyal minister Hu Yan, who was known as Jia Ji.
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 贾.
- JiaMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- KaCantonese — Hong Kong
- ChiaWade-Giles — Taiwan
The character
Outside a name, 贾 is an ordinary word meaning merchant; to buy, to trade.
- Strokes
- 10
- Radical
- 贝
- Traditional
- 賈
- As a word
- gǔ
Words built from 贾
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.