The word and the concept originated in China, where it was used as nicknames for the educated, then became popular in other East Asian countries (especially in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the former Kingdom of Ryukyu).

[1] In Chinese culture, Hao refers to honorific names made by oneself or given by others when one is in middle age.

Most Hao can be placed within a few categories: [citation needed] By the Song dynasty, the majority of literati called each other by their art names, which in turn often changed; this situation continued up to the 20th century.

For example, one of Hokusai's earliest pseudonyms was Shunrō; his master Katsukawa Shunshō having granted him the character 'shun' from his own name.

According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, they arrived on the peninsula from China during the Three Kingdoms of Korea period (57 BC – 668 AD).

They are now relatively uncommon, although some recent authors use pen names (필명; 筆名; pilmyeong), which are seen as very similar to a subvariant of ho called aho.

[1] Some ho are also exclusively written in the native Korean alphabet Hangul, without corresponding Chinese characters (Hanja).

For example, the linguist Lee Byeong-gi chose a pure Hangul name (가람; Garam) in part to reflect his sentiments as a Korean independence activist.

A number of texts that catalogue and categorize various ho exist, which are called hobo (호보; 號譜).

For example, Kunisada, once he changed his gō to Toyokuni, initiated the practice of signing prints with a signature in the elongated oval toshidama ('New Year's Jewel') seal of the Utagawa school, an unusual cartouche with the zig-zag in the upper right-hand corner.