How to Write 郏 (jiá) — Meaning “Jia (a surname)”

Imagine the left side 阝 as a hill or town, and the right side 夹 as two people squeezing together. You can picture two people meeting at a town—this represents the surname Jia and the place Jia County.

Pay attention to the right side 夹: it has a horizontal stroke (一) above two smaller "人" shapes, but the final stroke is a right-falling press (捺). A common mistake is to write the right side too narrow or to forget that the left 阝 (in its two-stroke form) is written first: a curved hook then a vertical line.

All three share the left radical 阝, but the right sides differ: 郏 uses 夹 (jiā), 邠 uses 分 (fēn), and 邡 uses 方 (fāng). 郏 is pronounced jiá and is a surname and place name, while 邠 (bīn) refers to an ancient place name and 邡 (fāng) is a surname or place name used in Sichuan.

郏 is primarily used as a surname (郏姓) and in the place name 郏县 (Jia County) in Henan province. It is not common in daily vocabulary and rarely appears outside these contexts, so you will mostly encounter it when referring to people with this surname or reading about that county.

Common words containing 郏 include: 郏县 (jiá xiàn) — Jia County; 郏先生 (jiá xiān shēng) — Mr. Jia; 郏姓 (jiá xìng) — The surname Jia.