How worn the ink looks — 0% is a fresh stamp, 100% is eroded stone.
Preview only. The downloaded PNG is 1024×1024.
About the name Cao
From the Ji (姬) royal house of Zhou: Cao Shu Zhen Duo, a younger brother of King Wu, was enfeoffed at Cao, in today’s Shandong, and the state kept the name for four hundred years until Qin ended it.
Its people carried the town’s word as a surname — and kept its other meaning too. Cao was the word for the staffed department of a court, the clerks who answered petitions; two centuries of Han history run through that word before it gave its name to Cao Cao.
The character is two stacks of grain: an administration that counted what the harvest produced.
Two bundles of grain, counted and stacked. What a harvest looks like once it is in the record.
The surname: From the Ji (姬) royal house of Zhou: Cao Shu Zhen Duo, a younger brother of King Wu, was enfeoffed at Cao, in today’s Shandong, and the state kept the name for four hundred years until Qin ended it. Its people carried the town’s word as a surname — and kept its other meaning too. Cao was the word for the staffed department of a court, the clerks who answered petitions; two centuries of Han history run through that word before it gave its name to Cao Cao. The character is two stacks of grain: an administration that counted what the harvest produced. Full 曹 page →
Single-surname seal: two stacks, and the ledger that counted them.
Cao in Chinese: questions
How do you write Cao in Chinese characters?
Cao is written 曹 in Mandarin. The characters are chosen to carry the sound and the sense of Cao rather than to transliterate it letter by letter, which is how Chinese names are actually made. On this page the seal is carved in the Zhongshan King (中山王) bronze-inscription seal script, with the Academia Sinica Chongxi Small Seal (崇羲篆體) filling any character the main font lacks.
What does the Chinese name 曹 mean?
曹 breaks down as 曹 (cáo) — Two bundles of grain, counted and stacked. What a harvest looks like once it is in the record. The seal note we would put under it: Single-surname seal: two stacks, and the ledger that counted them.
How is 曹 pronounced?
Pinyin: cáo — 曹 is tone 2 (a rising pitch, like the start of a question). Mandarin has four tones plus a neutral tone, and getting them wrong is the most common mistake Western speakers make with Chinese names — the seal itself is unaffected, since the carving is of the written form.
Is 曹 a real Chinese surname?
Yes. 曹 (cáo) is one of the recorded Chinese surnames. From the Ji (姬) royal house of Zhou: Cao Shu Zhen Duo, a younger brother of King Wu, was enfeoffed at Cao, in today’s Shandong, and the state kept the name for four hundred years until Qin ended it. Its people carried the town’s word as a surname — and kept its other meaning too. Cao was the word for the staffed department of a court, the clerks who answered petitions; two centuries of Han history run through that word before it gave its name to Cao Cao. The character is two stacks of grain: an administration that counted what the harvest produced. The full account, with the character’s own etymology, is on the 曹 surname page — and that lineage is the reason a Western name can borrow the character for a surname at all.
How does 曹 compare with the other Chinese names here?
曹 is built from 曹 — 曹 (cáo) — and no other curated name on this site shares that combination, because each entry is built around its own sound and its own meaning rather than recycled syllables. Names that start the same way as Cao are linked at the foot of this page.
What is the story behind the name Cao?
From the Ji (姬) royal house of Zhou: Cao Shu Zhen Duo, a younger brother of King Wu, was enfeoffed at Cao, in today’s Shandong, and the state kept the name for four hundred years until Qin ended it. Its people carried the town’s word as a surname — and kept its other meaning too. The full account — the etymology, the bearers, and why this site renders it as 曹 — is in the section above.
What is a Chinese name seal?
A Chinese seal (印, yìn) is the 3,000-year-old answer to the signature: a carved stamp, classically in red cinnabar ink, pressed onto documents, paintings and letters. A name seal carries your name in seal script (篆書) — the calligraphic style of the Qin dynasty. Traditionally two kinds: 朱文 (characters in red) and 白文 (characters in white, carved out of a solid red field).
Our generator transliterates your English name into a real Chinese name — not just sounds, but characters chosen for meaning — then carves it with an authentic seal-script font. Export is a transparent PNG you can stamp into documents, art, or tattoos.
SealsCrafter (sealscrafter.com) is a free Chinese name seal generator: it transliterates your English name into a real Chinese name — characters chosen for sound and meaning — then carves it as an authentic seal (印章) in genuine seal script. You export a transparent PNG instantly: no sign-up, no watermark, no cost. The carving uses the Zhongshan King (中山王) bronze-inscription seal script, supplemented by the Academia Sinica Chongxi Small Seal (崇羲篆體) for characters the main font lacks.
What is a Chinese name seal?
A personal stamp — classically a small stone engraved with your name in seal script and pressed in red cinnabar ink — used in China, Japan and Korea for 3,000 years in place of a signature. Full guide: what is a Chinese name seal.
What is the difference between 朱文 and 白文?
朱文 (zhūwén) prints the characters in red on paper; 白文 (báiwén) prints them white out of a solid red field. Both are authentic modes of carving — see zhuwen vs baiwen. Both are one click away in the generator above.
Is it a seal, a chop or a stamp?
Seal (印章) is the carved stone; a chop is the same object called by its Anglo-Indian colonial-era name (from Hindi chhāp, common in Hong Kong and Singapore); a stamp is usually the modern rubber office version. More: seal vs chop vs stamp.
Is it really free?
Yes — free, no login, no watermark. Ad-supported.
What font does it use?
The Zhongshan King seal script (中山王篆), a Warring-States bronze-inscription style, released under the SIL Open Font License.
Can I use the PNG commercially?
The seal design is yours to use. The font is OFL-licensed; exporting the image is fine for any personal or commercial use.