Liao (surname)

Liao () is a Chinese surname, most commonly found in Taiwan and Southern China. Statistics show it is among the 100 most common surnames in mainland China; figures from the Ministry of Public Security showed it to be the 61st most common surname, shared by around 4.2 million Chinese citizens. Its primary ancient meaning is: “spacious,” “empty,” or “vast”. This meaning comes from the classical usage of the character 廖 in early Chinese texts.

The pinyin romanisation of the Mandarin pronunciation is . Its Cantonese pronunciation is generally transcribed as Liew. Other romanisations of the name include Leo, Leow, Liau, Liaw, Liauw, Leeau, Lio, Liow, Leaw, Leou, Lau, Loh, Liu, Liêu, Liew, Liw, and Lew. Provided by Wikipedia