Ke (surname)

Ke is a transliteration of a common Chinese surname, written 柯 . It originally appeared on the Hundred Family Surnames, but as of 2006 was no longer one of the top 100 most common surnames.

Origin

There are several origins of this last name:
#the descendants of Duke Ke Lu of the State of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period;
#the descendants of a tribe in Northern Wei Dynasty whose surname was originally Keba but was simplified to Ke;
#the descendants of the Qiang tribe or the Xianbei tribe with the last name Ke.

One website lists it as originating from the town of Han in Zhejiang Province while another states it originated in Jiyang Prefecture during the Jin Dynasty .

Prominent people with the family name 柯

*Ke Mengde, a Song Dynasty poet
*Ke Jiusi , a Yuan Dynasty officer
*Ke Qian, a Ming Dynasty scholar
*Ke Weizhen, a Qing Dynasty poet
*Blackie Ko Shou Liang , modern director, actor, stuntman.
*Alan Ke You Lun a Taiwanese singer and Actor; son of Blackie Ko Shou Liang.
*Thomas J. Christensen , Co-director of the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs in the U.S. State Department .