John Ho

(male) English form of Latin Io(h)annes, New Testament Greek Iōannēs, a contracted form of the Hebrew name Johanan ‘God is gracious’ (the name of several different characters in the Old Testament, including one of King David's ‘mighty men’). John is the spelling used in the Authorized Version of the New Testament. The name is of great importance in early Christianity: it was borne by John the Baptist (the precursor of Christ himself, who baptized sinners in the River Jordan), by one of Christ's disciples (John the Apostle, a fisherman, brother of James), and by the author of the fourth gospel (John the Evangelist, identified in Christian tradition with the apostle, but more probably a Greek-speaking Jewish Christian living over half a century later). The name was also borne by many saints and by twenty-three popes, including John XXIII (Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881–1963), whose popularity was yet another factor influencing people to choose this given name. It was also a royal name, being borne by eight Byzantine emperors and by kings of Hungary, Poland, Portugal, France, and elsewhere. Among numerous bearers of note in recent times have been American president John F. Kennedy (1917–63) and British pop singer John Lennon (1940–80). In its various forms in different languages, it has been the most perennially popular of all Christian names.

Korean (Hŏ): there is only one Chinese character for the Hŏ surname. Some records indicate that there are fiftynine Hŏ clans, but only four have been identified and documented. All four clans descend from the same founding ancestor. In AD48, a sixteen-year-old Indian princess is said to have arrived by boat on the shores of Korea. The Karak Kingdom's King Suro married the woman, and out of respect for her origins allowed the second of their ten children to retain his mother's surname, Hŏ. The Hŏ surname is very common and is widely distributed throughout the Korean peninsula.