The Origin of Khaw

[totziens]

My late mother who recently passed away has the surname Khaw. In Mandarin, the word is the same as Khor. We are baba and nyonya (peranakan) descendents from Penang.

My mom is a Hokkien born in Penang. I also notice that there are relatively large number of people with the surname Khaw in Penang. When I searched for her surname, I found out that the surname was related to Teochew rather than Hokkien. Now I am confused.

Can anyone enlighten me whether the surname is a Teochew or Hokkien surname? Could it be a common surname used in both Teochew and Hokkien?

Although I am not familiar with Penang, I know about Khaw Kongsi. I wonder whether this clan has anything related to my mom's family.

Thanks

[Henry]

Hi Totziens,

Welcome to the Forum.

According to Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames

"Khor" is the MinNan ( Hokkien/Taiwanese/Teochew ) romanization for the Chinese surname: 許/许 (traditional Chinese character/simplified Chinese character). In Mandarin, the Pinyin romanization is "Xu" and in Cantonese "Hui".

The "Xu" surname is ranked 28th out of the top 100 Chinese surnames. There are also romanizations of this surname in the Wikipedia link in Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese.


Henry

[totziens]

Hi Henry,

Thank you very much. Now it makes sense why there are Hokkien and Teochew for this surname. I suppose it has a link with Thai surname Ranong too based on information I gather from the internet.

I have a feeling that people from this surname were pretty well-to-do in the olden days. Most of them seemed to be businessmen especially the ones in Penang. I wonder whether it's a coincidence that the Khaw family that I found online were into business. At some temples in Penang, I also noticed that quite a number of people with Khaw surname donated quite a sum of money to the temples. My mother's grandparents were also doing business but the wealth did not last beyond 2 generations. From my understanding they were pretty well-to-do as they had a car, driver, telephone, servants, cook, etc in the 50s. Someone please correct me if my impression of the Khaw families is not accurate as I am trying to understand my mother's family better. I would say it's at critical stage now as most of the old generation has gone.

My curiosity started when I could not figure out which area of Hokkien to write on her tomb stone. I just asked for the word Hokkien in Mandarin to be written in order to identify her ancestor's roots. I believe even my mom did not know her ancestor's origin other than she's a Hokkien.

[khs]

Dear Totziens

I hope this message is read by you since your last posting is dated 16 June 2009.

My surname is Khaw and my ancestors comes from Penang, Malaysia. We are teochews. By intermarriages over the years, some has their surname spell Khor instead of KHAW. Like you some has become hokkien rather than Teochew because, hokkien is more widely spoken in Penang than Teochew.

My family foots are from two (2) very famous Khaw. Khaw Loh Hup and Khaw Boo Aun. They are famous figures in Penang in the late 1800 to 1906. They contributed to the building of temples, clan associations and also cemetery (Mount Erskine, Penang). Their history is on the internet. The other famous Khaw family from Penang is Khaw Sim Bee who has ties with Thailand. In my years of research, I have not found a connection between Khaw Boo Aun and Khaw Sim Bee in terms of blood relation.

I am willing to share more information with you, my email is [e-mail] Who know's we may be related.

KHS

[lin]

Hi, apart from Khaw Sim Bee, there is also his brother Khaw Sim Khim. I believe there are two more brothers but no more descendants. I'm a Khaw as well from Khaw Sim Khim but female... So this branch will be extinct soon. Have been tracing my family history as well.

[philiptancl]

Apr 1, 2018 1:12:45 GMT -5 lin said:

Hi, apart from Khaw Sim Bee, there is also his brother Khaw Sim Khim. I believe there are two more brothers but no more descendants. I'm a Khaw as well from Khaw Sim Khim but female... So this branch will be extinct soon. Have been tracing my family history as well.

Hi Lin,

Welcome to the Forum.

I understand from the family tree of this illustrious KHAW family, KHAW Sim Bee (許心美) is the 6th son of KHAW Soo Cheang (許泗漳) through the Thai wife. KHAW Soo Cheang (1797-1882) other name is Khaw Teng Hai and was born in Zhangzhou (中国福建漳州龙溪县霞嶼鄉). At the age of 25, along with his elder brother, Soo Foo, he left China like thousands of others before him to escape poverty and headed for Nanyang, in search of a better life. In 1822, he arrived at Penang penniless.

The other sons of KHAW Soo Cheang are through his wife SIT Kim Lean (SIT’s mother is Chinese while her mother is Thai). The other sons are: 1) KHAW Sim Cheng (許心正),2) KHAW Sim Kong (許心廣),3) KHAW Sim Chuah (許心泉), 4) KHAW Sim Khim (許心欽), and 5) KHAW Sim Teik (許心德).

If you are from the 4th son KHAW Sim Khim (許心欽), how would be your connection to him? Your tree is already in Geni.com. I could connect you up to the tree if you are not already there.

Which such an illustrious family, it would appear than none of the descendants of KHAW Soo Cheang (許泗漳) has sourced the zupu as yet. Maybe Lin should make the effort.

Philip