Bi

surname · Latin script

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

/baɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Bi is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in India than in any other country. In Pakistan it is the 7th most common surname. Recorded meaning: Short for Bitrus (“Peter”).

rarermore common
  • INIndia≈1 in 3.4K(inferred from the name graph)
  • PKPakistan≈1 in 70K
  • CICôte d’Ivoire≈1 in 3.6K

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 Bi 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.

India (inferred from the name graph)

≈390,000 people, est.

Sources
74 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 3.4K (inferred from the name graph)

India, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Short for Bitrus (“Peter”).

Sources 4

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Bi 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 Bi is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
IN India#622≈390,000 est.≈1 in 3.4K—Bi59
CN China—≈220,000 est.≈1 in 6.4K—Bi11
CI Côte d’Ivoire—≈7,600 est.≈1 in 3.6K169——
BD Bangladesh#820≈6,100 est.≈1 in 27K—Bi17
ID Indonesia—≈5,100 est.≈1 in 52KlistedBi74
ES Spain—3,376as Ba1 in 15K3.4KBi12
PK Pakistan#7≈3,300 est.≈1 in 70K—Bi38

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: INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); nomprenoms.ci — ranked Ivorian surname frequencies. 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)

Bi is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname29 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Germany, United Kingdom

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Bî, Bï, Bì, Bí, Bī

  • Vietnamese surname25 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, India, United Kingdom

    Also written Bí, Bị, Bỉ, Bì, Pí

  • Spanish surname13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Mexico, United States, India, Spain

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Bî, Bí, Bï, Bī, Bị

  • French surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, India, Côte d’Ivoire, Belgium

    Also written Bî, Bï, Bī, Bí, B-I

  • Arabic surname18 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt

    Also written B'I, Bï, Bî, Bí, Bį

  • a separate surname12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, China, United States, Pakistan

    Also written Bî, Bï, Bī, Bí, Bị

  • a separate name6 spellings in the group

    Also written Bí, Bǐ, Bì, Bī, Bị

68 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)

Bi is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In och, to join; go together with; close together, successive

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

  • In cdo, Zine VE Bill he: thoughts, to think, to consider. to think out, to ransack one’s brains. to think about, to reflect on, (sanghave no depraved thoughts. an ariny, an instructor, a leader, to imitate, a teacher, to teach, S. patterns for men, (ging-si)

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • In dag, personal pronoun, third person plural, nom. case. they. bi -ra V. 1. to reach the age of puberty 2. to be grown 3. to be ripe (of cereals and fruit) 4. to be cooked completely 5. to be courageous

    as a wordDagbani Dictionary CD

  • In lua, ad]., bad, dirty, foul, unclean, soiled, filthy, immoral, impure, disreputable, nasty, naughty, base, vicious, corrupt, wicked, evil, unkind, unjust, profane, repulsive, repugnant, sinful.

    as a wordGrammar and Dictionary of the Buluba-Lulua Language

  • In Lao, v. break or divide with the fingers; break i into small pieces. = YIN, WANN». parents: :- Ug jer ty (Pali) n. father: -ANN n. parricide. — 83 n. d = USAn. father: ` cor o Una" foi ti

    as a wordLao-English Dictionary

  • In cdo, A a parapet or breastwork, to aid to benefit. to.add to, thick; a low wall

    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)

500100015002000Bi Shiduo, b. 900Bi Sheng, b. 1000Chin Han, b. 1938Bi Feiyu, b. 1964Bi Wenjing, b. 1981Bi Gan, b. 1989Bii, b. 1989Bi Jinhao, b. 1991Bi Kun, b. 1995Kenneth Bi, b. 2000
  • Bi Shiduob. 900Military Officer
  • Bi Shengb. 1000CNinventor and printer (990-1052)
  • Chin Hanb. 1938CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor and director (b. 1938)
  • Bi Feiyub. 1964CNChinese writer
  • Bi Wenjingb. 1981CNOlympic gymnast
  • Bi Ganb. 1989CNChinese director and writer (born 1989)
  • Biib. 1989TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese singer, songwriter and actor
  • Bi Jinhaob. 1991CNfootballer
  • Bi Kunb. 1995CNChinese windsurfer
  • Kenneth Bib. 2000CNCanadian film director, screenwriter, actor and film editor (born 1967)

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)

FormalDear Colleague,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 42 sources across 23 countries.

Official registers attesting Bi
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
CI Côte d’Ivoirenomprenoms.ci — ranked Ivorian surname frequencies—169#2,476
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—134#22,371
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—134#22,310

Reference works 5

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • 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 Bi mean, and where does it come from?
Short for Bitrus (“Peter”). Recorded by Wiktionary and Chinese Surnames Dictionary (Section 1) and 2 other sources.
How do you pronounce Bi?
A machine transcription gives /baɪ/ (IPA) for Urdu.
In which country does Bi have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 394 thousand people named Bi in India, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bi.
How common is the name Bi?
In Spain, the national register counted 3,376 people named Ba, about 1 in 15 thousand residents.
How common is Bi compared with other names?
In India, Bi is the 622nd most common surname of 1,492,515 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Bi?

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

The 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, “Bi” — the 622nd most common surname in India. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Bi parses inside a full name →