For a one-character Chinese surname based on Clarke or Clark, I would start with 克 Kè. It preserves the first character of 克拉克 Kèlākè, a documented Chinese rendering, and a dictionary explicitly records its use as a surname under kè. 柯 Kē changes the character and tone while keeping the same Mandarin consonant and vowel. If the historical idea of a clerk or record-keeper matters more than sound, 史 Shǐ is a worthwhile alternative.
You can also keep the full 克拉克. A short Chinese surname is useful when you are building a Chinese personal name with a given name after it. It is a choice about how you want to be addressed, rather than a requirement for writing your existing surname in Chinese.
Start with the sound you actually use
Cambridge gives Clarke as /klɑːk/ in its British reference and /klɑːrk/ in its American reference. Both are one syllable. The final *e* does not make another syllable, and the American reference keeps an audible *r*. Your own accent may differ from either reference, so use the pronunciation you and your family use when trying a Chinese name.
Clark and Clarke belong to the same English surname word-family: Etymonline traces both to a Middle English spelling of clerk. Sharing this naming discussion does not mean that everyone with either spelling belongs to one family. Keep your own Latin-letter spelling wherever your identity needs to be unambiguous.
The National Academy for Educational Research's name reference lists Clark — 克拉克. For Clarke, a Chinese Ministry of Commerce report pairs Arthur C. Clarke with 亚瑟·克拉克. These are evidence of Chinese usage; the people involved are not reasons to borrow their biographies or professions.
There is some variation. The same NAER reference uses 克拉可 for several musicians named Clarke, including Rebecca Clarke, on PDF page 44. That does not require every Clarke to use that ending. It shows why an existing family or professional Chinese spelling deserves attention before adopting a new one. Both forms begin with 克, so this variation does not automatically change the single-character comparison.
In 克拉克, Mandarin expands the English syllable into three syllables. It cannot retain the initial /kl/ cluster or the final /k/ in the same form. Taking just Kè or Kē is a further reduction: the *l*, the long vowel quality, the final consonant and, where pronounced, the *r* are no longer preserved. The connection is through a Chinese rendering, not an exact sound match.
柯 Kē changes the character and tone
The Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary explicitly records 柯 as a surname under kē. This is evidence for the surname and its reading together. The first tone is high and level. It differs from the falling fourth tone of the surname 克 Kè.
Choosing 柯 therefore changes both the character and the tone of the transliteration's first syllable. You preserve a limited sound association while selecting an independently documented Chinese surname. You can explain it as 我姓柯，木字旁的柯: “My surname is Kē, the 柯 with the wood component.” Saying the surname and showing the character is more useful than writing “Ke” without a tone.
柯 also has dictionary meanings connected with an axe handle and branches. Those meanings are available as associations, but they are not the origin of Clarke. There is no reason to tell a story about your ancestors being woodworkers just because the Chinese character contains 木. If your reason is sound, that explanation is enough.
What about keeping 克 itself?
克 is genuinely recorded as a surname character in the Ministry of Education's Taiwan household-registration surname table. It should not be dismissed simply because it is less familiar. It also has a particularly direct visual connection to 克拉克.
The reading needs its own evidence. The Chinese–Japanese Dictionary, third edition, on Kotobank explicitly includes a surname sense under kè. This is a dictionary record of the surname and reading together, separate from the character's use in foreign transcriptions. 克 Kè is therefore a supported candidate without relying on an ordinary word reading to infer the surname pronunciation.
If retaining precisely the original first character is your priority, 克 Kè has a direct advantage. Compare 柯 Kē if you prefer its writing or level tone in your complete name. Neither character restores more of the English surname's lost sounds; 克拉克 remains available as the full transliteration.
史 Shǐ follows the record-keeping meaning
Clerk once covered a wider range than a modern office job. The etymological record includes clerics, people who could read and write, scribes and keepers of accounts. It does not tell us which role an individual Clarke or Clark ancestor had, or whether you have a religious connection today.
史 Shǐ offers a specific Chinese occupational comparison. The Ministry of Education entry records both the surname and an old official responsible for documents and recording events under shǐ. The link is thus the work of making and preserving records. It is more precise than choosing the surname of a famous scholar merely because the English name can suggest literacy.
This is an analogy between functions in different historical settings. It does not make the Chinese office identical to a medieval European cleric, translate every possible origin of Clark, or give you a Chinese family lineage. The character also refers to history and historical writing, which may be a useful association if it genuinely appeals to you.
The sound trade-off is large: Shǐ has a different initial and vowel from Clarke, with a third tone. It should be chosen for the record-keeping connection, not presented as a close transliteration. You can introduce it as 我姓史，历史的史, “My surname is Shǐ, the 史 in ‘history’.”
Make the final choice in a complete name
Try 克 Kè first if you want to retain the exact opening of the Chinese rendering. Compare 柯 Kē if you prefer another character and a level tone. Try 史 Shǐ if keeping the old writing-and-records association is more important. There is no need to invent another cultural surname to make the options look balanced.
Put each serious option before the same Chinese given name. Ask a Mandarin speaker to read it aloud without coaching, then introduce yourself aloud and ask which surname they heard. This reveals whether you like the tone sequence, whether the character needs explanation, and whether the complete name creates an unintended phrase. It is a practical trial, not a guarantee that one spelling works identically in every Chinese-speaking community.
My starting recommendation is 克 Kè, with 柯 Kē as a change of character and tone. For meaning, 史 Shǐ has a concrete reason. If shortening removes too much of your family name, using 克拉克 alongside Clarke or Clark preserves a more recognisable connection.
British and American source notes
The frozen source list used for this series places Clarke at 27 and Clark at 30 on the British Surnames website. Its scope here is Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland. The ranking page does not establish a reference year, count or counting method, so these are website positions, not verified current population ranks.
The United States module uses CLARK at rank 28, with a published frequency of 539,661, in the 2020 Census surname release. The data were released in 2026 and underwent disclosure-avoidance processing; they are not a count of current 2026 residents. This is the row for CLARK, not a combined total for CLARK and CLARKE. The same sound and surname-choice discussion can serve an American Clark while the original spelling and national statistics remain separate.
