On
loc · Latin script
Meaning: In the state of being active, functioning or operating
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
On is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 81K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 41Kas An
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 19K
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 On 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)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 357 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 19K (inferred from the name graph)
8,160 named An, 2010
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Malaysia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Oen in NO Norway, SG Singapore, An in DE Germany and Aen in MY Malaysia.
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)
In the state of being active, functioning or operating.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
On 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 | 8,160as An | 1 in 41K | 9.4K | On | 357 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | Aen | 51 |
| DE Germany | ≈980 est. | ≈1 in 81K | — | An | 113 |
| FR France | ≈660 est. | ≈1 in 103K | 38 | On | 7 |
| NO Norway | 652as Oen | 1 in 8.4K | 652 | Oen | 17 |
| SG Singapore | ≈160 est. | ≈1 in 40K | — | Oen | 63 |
| FI Finland | 113as An | 1 in 49K | 347 | — | 10 |
| CR Costa Rica | 94 | 1 in 54K | 94 | — | 18 |
8,160 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010, counting the spelling an. 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; SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names. 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)
On 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.
Strength, vigor, or wealth
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Biblical name
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In English, hi, ma, ya; on account of, va ~
as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language
In kr, meeting, like our "how are you?" wusdte, n. a. the act of thanking, greeting. wusdtema, s. one who heartily thanks, or regularly greets. wusdteram, s. instrument for frightening, threatening, as a
as a wordKanuri-English Vocabulary (in African Native Literature)
In kr, it; but inside expressly prepared by the use of ashes and ground nut-oil. It is said to preserve the water very cool. sdldlma, s. maker of water -bags
as a wordKanuri-English Vocabulary (in African Native Literature)
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)
- Liu Anb. 179not in their usual nameHan dynasty scholar
- Sim Onb. 1375KRprime minister of the Korean Joseon dynasty
- Zhu Anb. 1878not in their usual namewife of Lu Xun
- Chu Anpingb. 1909CNnot in their usual nameChinese scholar (1909-1966)
- An Wangb. 1920USnot in their usual nameAmerican businessman (1920–1990)
- Ang Leeb. 1954TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese film director, screenwriter and producer (born 1954)
- Huang Anb. 1962TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese singer
- Jo Anb. 1982KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
- On Joo-wanb. 1983KRSouth Korean actor
- Lily Zhangb. 1996USnot in their usual nameAmerican table tennis 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 32 sources across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 433 | #15,999 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 278 | #15,999 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 35 | #10,064 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 35 | #10,329 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 8 | #25,732 |
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names | — | 2 | #28,607 |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
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 On mean, and where does it come from?
- In the state of being active, functioning or operating. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does On have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 8.2 thousand people named An, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name On?
- In Costa Rica, the national register counted 94 people named On, about 1 in 54 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about On?
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/onThe 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, “On”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.