It originally appeared on the Hundred Family Surnames.[where?]
[citation needed] A 2013 study found that it was the 145th most common surname, shared by 1.06 million people or 0.080% of the population, with the province most being Hubei.
It is also spelled as Quah, Qua, Kua, Kuah, Kwa, Ke, Ker, Ko, Koa, Kok, or O in English, owing to variations in dialect (for instance, O derives from the Cantonese pronunciation of the character) or romanisation system (compare Ke, which derives from Pinyin, with Ko, which derives from Wade-Giles.)
There are several origins of this last name: One website lists it as originating from the town of Han in Zhejiang Province[1] while another states it originated in Jiyang Prefecture (located in present-day Dingtao County, Shandong Province) during the Jin dynasty (266–420).
[2] Kha is a Vietnamese variant of the family name Ke (柯)