The

Chinese family name Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the W ...

Mo ( 莫) is pronounced in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

as "Mò" (4th tone), in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

as "Mok⁶" (6th tone). The surname is often romanized as Mok where Cantonese speakers are prominent. According to a study of Mu Ying's Name record, the surname came to be when descendants of the antediluvian ruler

Zhuanxu Zhuanxu (Chinese: trad. , simp. , pinyin ''Zhuānxū''), also known as Gaoyang ( t , s , p ''Gāoyáng''), was a mythological emperor of ancient China. In the traditional account recorded by Sima Qian, Zhu ...

abbreviated the name of his city, Moyangcheng (莫陽城; in modern-day

Pingxiang County Pingxiang County () is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xingtai, in the south of Hebei province, China, located about from downtown Xingtai. It has a population of 280,000 residing in an area of . In the Han dynas ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

) and took it as their surname. As Chinese family names go, Mo is relatively rare, ranked 168th in the ''

Hundred Family Surnames The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dyn ...

''. In 2004, there were an estimated 73,000 people with the surname of Mo abroad and 1,540,000 Mos in China. When not used as a surname, 'Mo' (莫) means 'do not'.

Notable people

Arts and culture

Mo Yan Guan Moye (; born 17 February 1955), better known by the pen name Mo Yan (, ), is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. Donald Morrison of U.S. news magazine ''TIME'' referred to him as "one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirate ...

(莫言), real name Guan Moye (管谟业), Chinese author, Nobel laureate * Max Mok Siu-Chung (莫少聰), Hong Kong actor *

Hoyan Mok Hoyan Mok () is a Hong Kong actress. She won the 1993 Miss Hong Kong Pageant and worked as an actress for TVB in the 1990s. She was president of Wai Yin Association in 2009–2010. Mok is married to Alex Fong Chung-sun who is also a Hong Kon ...

(莫可欣), winner of Miss Hong Kong Pageant (1993) *

Karen Mok Karen Mok (born Karen Joy Morris (), 2 June 1970) is a Hong Kong pop diva who is one of the leading Asian pop singers and actresses with a career spanning three decades. She is the first female Hong Kong singer to win the Golden Melody Award and ...

(莫文蔚), Hong Kong singer and actress. *

Warren Mok Warren Mok () is a Hong Kong-based Macau operatic tenor who has performed many leading roles since his European debut in 1987 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He has a repertoire of 50 operatic roles, including Calaf in ''Turandot'', Cavaradossi in ''T ...

(莫華倫), Hong Kong tenor *Mo Han (莫寒), Chinese singer, member of

SNH48 SNH48 is a Chinese idol girl group based in Shanghai. Following AKB48's creator Yasushi Akimoto's concept of "idols you can meet", the group features dozens of female members around the age of 20, who perform regularly in the group's own thea ...

Evelyn Mok Evelyn Mok (born 29 November 1987) is a Swedish-born Chinese stand-up comedian and actress. Early life Mok was born in Sweden to a Chinese immigrant family. Her father came from British Hong Kong, and her mother is Chinese and grew up in India. ...

, Chinese-Swedish-English comedian

Business

* Charles Mok (莫乃光), Hong Kong internet entrepreneur

Production

Ken Mok Ken Mok is a television producer, and also the founder and president of 10x10 Entertainment, a production company which produces television, film and alternative media. Among the television projects being produced under the 10x10 banner are the ...

, American television producer *

May Mok May Mok Mei-Wah () is a Hong Kong award-winning sound effects Sound editor (filmmaking), editor, who also specializes in Audio mixing (recorded music), sound mixing, sound design, and Advanced Digital Recording, ADR recording.Tze Ming Mok (莫志明), New Zealand writer

Politics

Mo Xuanqing Mo Xuanqing (, August 17, 834) born in Zhaoqing, modern Guangdong, was the youngest Zhuangyuan in the imperial examinations during the Tang Dynasty, in Chinese history. He was known as a talented person from the age of 12. In 851, at the age of 17 ...

(莫宣卿), the youngest "number one scholar" (in the imperial examination) in Chinese history *

Mo Teh-hui Mo Teh-hui (; 1883 in Xinjiang Province, Qing Dynasty – April 17, 1968 in Taipei, Taiwan) was a nationalist Chinese politician. Biography Mo was born in 1883 in Xinjiang, to a Uyghur mother and Manchu father. He was born while his father was ...

(莫德惠), Minister of Agricultural and Business (Republic of China)

Sports

Mo Huilan Mo Huilan (; born 19 July 1979 in Guilin, Guangxi) is a retired Chinese gymnast who competed at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She was one of China's most successful gymnasts in the 1990s. She was known for performing routines of exceptiona ...