Where the name comes from
The surname is traced to Emperor Shun. English Wikipedia quotes the classical formula 虞帝生於姚墟，故因生以為姓 — the sage-ruler was born at Yaoxu (姚墟) and therefore took Yao from his birthplace as his surname. The site is placed either in Fan County, Henan, or in Shandong, and Yao is counted among the Eight Great Surnames of Chinese antiquity.
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 姚.
- YaoMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- Yiu / IuCantonese
- YeowMin Nan (Hokkien / Teochew) — Malaysia
- Yow / Yeo / IauSingapore
- Diêu / DaoVietnamese
- YoKorean
The character
Outside a name, 姚 is an ordinary word meaning handsome, elegant, attractive.
- Strokes
- 9
- Radical
- 女
- As a word
- yáo