[1] The biography of Chao Cuo in the Records of the Grand Historian stated that the surname originated in the Nanyang Commandery, specifically in the ancient region of Xi'e.
Another Chinese surname, homophonous with the above in Mandarin, is written with a character meaning "nest" (巢).
Zhào (赵; 趙) was the seventh-most-common surname, but it is not spelled Chao in mainland China.
Municipalities with particularly high concentrations of bearers of the surname included Muras (61 people; 2.99% of the local population), Ourol (69; 2.45%), and Pedrafita do Cebreiro (52; 1.72%), all in the Province of Lugo (as were all but one of the ten municipalities with the highest concentrations of bearers of the surname).
[12] The 2010 United States census found 10,398 people with the surname Chao, making it the 3,432nd-most-common name in the country.
In both censuses, slightly less than nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified as Asian, between five and seven per cent as Hispanic, and between three and five percent as White.