Mi
loc · Latin script
Meaning: A syllable used in sol-fa (solfège) to represent the third note of a major scale
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Mi is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- SGSingapore≈1 in 2Kas May(inferred from the name graph)
- LALaos≈1 in 2.2Kas May
- AUAustralia≈1 in 2.2Kas May
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Mi itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #742 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 558 (measured from records)
- 1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)
103,306 named May, 2010
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Nepal, as Mali
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled May in GB United Kingdom, AU Australia, DE Germany and 1 more and Mati in LA Laos.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A syllable used in sol-fa (solfège) to represent the third note of a major scale.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Mi 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #236 | 103,306as May | 1 in 3.2K | 103K | Mi | 558 |
| IN India | — | 73,466as Mali | 1 in 18K | 73K | Mi | 67 |
| GB United Kingdom | #156 | ≈28,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | 7 | May | 303 |
| DE Germany | #176 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.3K | listed | May | 197 |
| NP Nepal | — | 19,605as Mali | 1 in 1.5K | 20K | — | — |
| AU Australia | #195 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | 6 | May | 246 |
| LA Laos | — | ≈3,400 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | — | Mati | 11 |
| SG Singapore | #125 | ≈3,100 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | May | 122 |
103,306 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010, counting the spelling may. 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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); the de-munich-vornamen register; NPHC 2021 — Population by caste/ethnicity group (national), surname-shaped categories only. 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)
Mi 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 English, river, China, Kazakhstan
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In cdo, To speak in a low tono， to whisper ； quiet dis- 'i course ； still, silent ； care- ful, attentive : "chik^ mik^ silent, Rtill ； "ww'/fc; tyonff, at rest, rtiposing. Full, overflowing, as waters ； in the coll. over- flowed, submerged, as by ail inundation : coll., k'-'eilk^ 'chwi mik、 covered
as a wordAn Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect
In dag, ever, in the past KO i.e. have experienced something : [M mi n-chaq NaaYa. I have gone to Yendi before.] :: translate ’have’[perf.] in positive, ‘ever’ in question, ‘never’ with negative (but see 3 ') Singular cl. Definition
as a wordDagbani Dictionary CD
In Hungarian, what
as a wordEtymological Dictionary of Hungarian
In cdo, an archer’s pay from the govern: panes to introduce, to recommend, (gai-siéu), one who recommends, (git ciéng), a letter of recommehdation, (boto attend one who is sleeping
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Mi Zhub. 101CNChinese general and adviser to warlord Liu Bei (c.165–221)
- Lady Mib. 200CNChinese noble
- Bai Qib. 250CNnot in their usual nameChinese Qin state military general ( c. 332 BC – 257 BC)
- Qu Yuanb. 343CNnot in their usual nameChinese poet and politician (c.340–278 BC)
- Mi Fub. 1051CNChinese artist (1051-1107)
- Noor Deen Mi Guangjiangb. 1963CNexpert in Islamic calligraphy
- Zhou Mib. 1979CNbadminton player
- Amerieb. 1980USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, songwriter, dancer and actor
- Michelle Wub. 1985USnot in their usual nameMayor of Boston since 2021 (born 1985)
- Mi Haolunb. 1993CNChinese association football player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 50 sources across 29 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 6.1K | #3,253 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 512 | #3,253 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2024 | 6 | — |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 2016 | 1 | #839 |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2016 | 1 | #839 |
| DE Germany | Stadt München Open Data — Vornamen von Nulljährigen | 2018 | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- 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 Mi mean, and where does it come from?
- A syllable used in sol-fa (solfège) to represent the third note of a major scale. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Mi have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 103 thousand people named May, more than in any other country we hold.
- Where is Mi most common?
- No national register we hold counts the spelling Mi itself. The densest figure for its family of spellings is Nepal's: the national register counts about 1 in 1.5 thousand people named Mali.
- How common is the name Mi?
- In the United States, the national register counted 103,306 people named May in 2010, about 1 in 3.2 thousand residents.
- How common is Mi compared with other names?
- In the United States, Mi is the 236th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Mi?
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/miThe 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, “Mi” — the 236th most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.