Chinese中文
郭
Guō
Native name formChinese · east Asia
Guo
outer city wall; rampart
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Geography: Natural Earth. Borders are shown for orientation.
Guo states and city walls
The Dictionary of American Family Names connects 郭 with the ancient Eastern and Western Guo states, another Guo state in Shandong, and a habitational use for people living outside city walls. These distinct explanations should not be treated as one family lineage.
Shared character, distinct family histories
Mandarin Guō, Wade–Giles Kuo and Cantonese Kwok are spellings associated with 郭. Korean Kwak or Gwak is written 곽 and 郭; Japanese Kaku also uses the character. This is a documented name connection, not proof that individual bearers share ancestry.
Related names in East Asia
Only sourced connections in East Asian naming traditions appear here. Each form explains its relationship to this name; a shared character or reading does not establish a shared family line.
3 East Asian languages documented.
Japanese日本語
郭
Kaku
Character reading · not a surname equivalentKorean한국어
곽 (郭)
Kwak / Gwak
Shared character traditionSmall details. Longer histories.
Fun facts
We are still collecting verified facts for this name.
Artifacts & historical records
Objects and records can illuminate a particular person or community. They do not establish the ancestry of everyone with the same surname.
No verified artifact has been added to this record yet.
Places & sources
Geographic context: China (representative country context). No worldwide distribution dataset is attached yet.
- Guo — Wikipediareference · checked 2026-10-05
- Guo surname entry — Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd ed. (2022), via Ancestryreference · checked 2026-10-05
- Kwak (surname) — Wikipediareference · checked 2026-10-05
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