The So surname
In the 2010 U.S. Census, 7,456 people carried this name — #4,749 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 39,500 people counted. That is up 20% from 6,227 in 2000.
Where the name comes from
The origin of the So surname
A Chinese surname from Cantonese.
From Cantonese 蘇／苏 (sou1).
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org) — entry «So» (English), by Wiktionary contributors · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · excerpt, lightly adapted.
In France’s civil register
France’s register of deaths holds 76 people named So.
Most of them — 65 — were born outside France. Those born in France came from 8 départements, most often Indre-et-Loire.
Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.
Where they were born
Fichier des personnes décédées, INSEE — Licence Ouverte 2.0 · deaths recorded in France since 1970, by place of birth.
In Switzerland’s population statistics
65 people named So live in Switzerland.
They live in 4 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, most of all in Vaud.
Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.
Where they live today
Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), «Surnames of the permanent resident population by canton», 2025, opendata.swiss/en/dataset/nachnamen-der-standigen-wohnbevolkerung-nach-kanton3 · names with fewer than 3 bearers in a canton are not published.
In the Nordic population registers
34 people named So is counted in Sweden.
Sweden’s figure is from 31 December 2022, the last count Statistics Sweden published.
Counted, by country
Own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), surnames with at least two bearers, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 20 or more bearers shown).
In print
So in American newspapers,
1887–1895.
Chronicling America, Library of Congress — digitised newspapers in the public domain · 18,462,078 pages in all carry the name.
Who carried it
People named So,
with a public archive behind them.
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Xiao Dacheng 531– · politician
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So Se-ryang 1476–1528 · civil servant
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So Se-yang 1486–1562 · civil servant
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So Seon-gyu 1903–1968 · politician
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So Seon-gyu 1903–1968 · politician
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So Seon-gyu 1903–1968 · politician
Wikidata (CC0) · 8 lives in all are documented under this name.
Nearby in the index
Surnames next to So.
- Smit 3,164 · U.S. census
- Smith 2,442,977 · U.S. census
- Smits 2,409 · U.S. census
- Smolarek 277 · U.S. census
- Smolen 1,655 · U.S. census
- Smolinski 2,125 · U.S. census
- Soares 11,694 · U.S. census
- Soave 569 · U.S. census
- Sobanski 262 · U.S. census
- Sobczak 2,740 · U.S. census
- Sobczyk 598 · U.S. census
- Sobieraj 285 · U.S. census
When the index is not enough
This page says where So is.
A volume says what happened to it.
Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.