初
surname · Han script
Meaning: initial; inceptive
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ʈ͡ʂʰu⁵⁵/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
初 is a surname written in the Han script, with more bearers in Taiwan than in any other country.
- TWTaiwan1 in 34K(measured from records)
- CNChina≈1 in 2.9M
- MOMacao1 in 77K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Taiwan (measured from records)
- Sources
- 54 (measured from records)
- 1 in 34K (inferred from the name graph)
701 people, 2023
Highest-authority source
Taiwan
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
initial; inceptive
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
初 counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
701 people counted by RIS/MOI — Household Registration Statistics (surnames + given names), 2023. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: the cn-chinesenames register; RIS/MOI — Household Registration Statistics (surnames + given names); 全國姓名統計分析 — National Name Statistical Analysis; DSEC Macau — NameStatistic surname sweep (2025 register lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
初 is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Chinese, beginning
as a wordBaxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction, version 1.1 (2014)
In Chinese, from 姓苑; origin uncertain
as a name新华姓氏词典 (Xinhua dictionary of Chinese surnames)
In Korean, hanja form of 초 (“beginning; start”)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Vietnamese, chữ Hán form of sơ (“in the initial stage; primary; elementary”)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Japanese, the first..., initial..., new...
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 6 sources across 3 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ChineseNames: given names by birth decade/cohort 1930-2008 | 2004 | — | — |
| CN China | ChineseNames: household-registered population — surnames + given names (no time axis) | — | — | — |
| CN China | ChineseNames: given names by birth decade/cohort 1930-2008 | 1995 | — | — |
| CN China | ChineseNames: given names by birth decade/cohort 1930-2008 | 1985 | — | — |
| CN China | ChineseNames: given names by birth decade/cohort 1930-2008 | 1975 | — | — |
| CN China | ChineseNames: given names by birth decade/cohort 1930-2008 | 1965 | — | — |
| CN China | ChineseNames: given names by birth decade/cohort 1930-2008 | 1945 | — | — |
Reference works 1
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name 初 mean, and where does it come from?
- initial; inceptive Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce 初?
- A machine transcription gives /ʈ͡ʂʰu⁵⁵/ (IPA) for Chinese.
- In which country does 初 have the most bearers?
- In Taiwan, the national register counted about 701 people named 初, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled 初.
- Where is 初 most common?
- 初 is densest in Taiwan, where the national register counts about 1 in 34 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name 初?
- In Taiwan, the national register counted 701 people named 初 in 2023, about 1 in 34 thousand residents.
- How common is 初 compared with other names?
- In Taiwan, 初 is the 356th most common surname of 18,531 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about 初?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/%E5%88%9DThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “初” — the 356th most common surname in Taiwan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.