Ngai
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Any of three Chinese surnames of Cantonese origin, used primarily in Hong Kong
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 14 countries · latest register: Census Bureau, 2020
/(ə)ŋaɪ/(recorded in a dictionary) English · from Wiktionary
Ngai is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Hong Kong than in any other country.
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 830few records(inferred from the name graph)
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 19Kfew records
- SGSingapore≈1 in 44Kfew records
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Hong Kong (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 213 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 830 (inferred from the name graph)
≈9,100 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Hong Kong, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)Any of three Chinese surnames of Cantonese origin, used primarily in Hong Kong.
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Ngai 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HK Hong Kong | #212 | ≈9,100 est. | ≈1 in 830 | — | Ngai | 63 |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | Ngai | 33 |
| US United States | — | 1,623 | 1 in 205K | 1.8K | Ngai | 213 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈510 est. | ≈1 in 81K | — | Ngai | 91 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈250 est. | ≈1 in 108K | 1 | Ngai | 87 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈140 est. | ≈1 in 44K | — | Ngai | 38 |
| JM Jamaica | — | ≈40 est. | ≈1 in 72K | — | Ngai | 1 |
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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present). 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)Ngai 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.
Chinese variant of Wei 1.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In cdo, a defile, a pass, narrow, narrow minded, mean
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In cdo, imugwort, artemisia, beauty, to nourish, to end, to quiet, to stop, old, S
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In cdo, foolish, silly, doltish, bad, evil wicked
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In Lingala, alternative spelling of ngáí
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.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Ni Zanb. 1301CNnot in their usual nameChinese painter (1301-1374)
- Ai Qingb. 1910CNnot in their usual nameChinese poet (1910-1996)
- Paul Wei Ping-aob. 1929CNnot in their usual nameChinese actor (1929-1989)
- Wei Jingshengb. 1950CNnot in their usual nameChinese democracy activist and dissident
- Ai Weiweib. 1957CNnot in their usual nameChinese Conceptual artist (born 1957)
- Ni Yulanb. 1961CNnot in their usual nameChinese human rights activist
- Wei Te-shengb. 1969TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese film director and screenwriter
- Ai Fenb. 1974CNnot in their usual nameChinese physician and director of the emergency department in a hospital
- Ni Nib. 1988CNnot in their usual nameChinese actress
- Hua MulanCNnot in their usual nameChinese legendary female warrior
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).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)29 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 240 | #21,691 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 226 | #21,691 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1970 | 26 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1971 | 22 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1973 | 7 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1972 | 6 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1998 | 5 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1984 | 1 | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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 Ngai mean, and where does it come from?
- Any of three Chinese surnames of Cantonese origin, used primarily in Hong Kong. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Ngai?
- It depends on the language: in English /(ə)ŋaɪ/ (Wiktionary); in Swahili /nɡai/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.
- In which country does Ngai have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 9.1 thousand people named Ngai in Hong Kong, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ngai.
- How common is the name Ngai?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,623 people named Ngai in 2010, about 1 in 205 thousand residents.
- How common is Ngai compared with other names?
- In Hong Kong, Ngai is the 212th most common surname of 8,142 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Ngai?
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/ngaiThe 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, “Ngai” — the 212th most common surname in Hong Kong. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.