Bey

surname · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Bey is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Dominica it is the 4th most common surname. In English, recorded as A governor of a province or district in the Turkish dominions.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 44K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 61K
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 68K

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.

United States (measured from records)

5,453 people, 2010

Sources
347 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 6.0K (inferred from the name graph)

Belize, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

A governor of a province or district in the Turkish dominions

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

How Bey is read(measured from records)

Bey is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English54%

    A governor of a province or district in the Turkish dominions

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • French14%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Bey in French.

  • Turkish5.8%

    gentleman, mister

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Bey 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.

Where Bey is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States—5,4531 in 61K6KBey347
FR France—≈3,800 est.≈1 in 18K418—5
TR Türkiye—≈2,000 est.≈1 in 42K—Bey27
DE Germany—≈1,800 est.≈1 in 44KlistedBey99
GB United Kingdom—≈970 est.≈1 in 68K—Bey72
JM Jamaica#703≈180 est.≈1 in 16K—Bey2
BZ Belize#38≈66 est.≈1 in 6K—Bey1
DM Dominica#4———Bey1

5,453 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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; the dfa-band-1 register; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Bey is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French surname9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, India, Algeria

    Also written Béy, Bèy, Bëy, Bëý, Béÿ

  • Turkish surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, United States, Kyrgyzstan, Syria

    Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen

    Also written Beý, Béy, ̇bey, Bêÿ

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Be̳y, Beÿ

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Bĕý

  • Indonesian surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, India, United States, Kyrgyzstan

    Also written Bĕy, Bëÿ

75 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Bey is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In cdo, extravagant talk, lies, (kito walk or travel for pleasure

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Akuwagel.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In German, obsolete spelling of bei

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In lid, stingray

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

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)

12001400160018002000Savcı Bey, b. 1362Tugay Bey, b. 1601Erich Bey, b. 1898Turhan Bey, b. 1922Frank Bey, b. 1946David Bey, b. 1957Mickey Bey, b. 1983Chris Bey, b. 1996Emre Bey, b. 1997Tyler Bey, b. 1998
  • Savcı Beyb. 1362TRottoman Prince, Son of Murad I
  • Tugay Beyb. 1601UAMilitary leader and politician of the Crimean Tatars (1601-1651)
  • Erich Beyb. 1898DEGerman admiral (1898–1943)
  • Turhan Beyb. 1922ATactor born in Austria (1922-2012)
  • Frank Beyb. 1946USAmerican blues singer (1946–2020)
  • David Beyb. 1957USAmerican boxer
  • Mickey Beyb. 1983USboxer
  • Chris Beyb. 1996USAmerican professional wrestler
  • Emre Beyb. 1997TRTurkish actor (born 1997)
  • Tyler Beyb. 1998USAmerican basketball player (born 1998)

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 39 sources across 23 countries.

Official registers attesting Bey
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020206K#5,577
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020105.5K#6,265
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020004.8K#6,510
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1961476—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1971447—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1981443—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1991418—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1951347—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1941261—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1921231—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1931207—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1901181—

Reference works 7

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 Bey mean, and where does it come from?
A governor of a province or district in the Turkish dominions Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Bey have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 5.5 thousand people named Bey, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bey.
What are other forms of the name Bey?
In the etymology graph, بيه is a form of the same name in other languages.
How common is the name Bey?
In the United States, the national register counted 5,453 people named Bey in 2010, about 1 in 61 thousand residents.
How common is Bey compared with other names?
In Dominica, Bey is the 4th most common surname of 841 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Bey?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/bey

The same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Bey” — the 4th most common surname in Dominica. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Bey parses inside a full name →