Chi

loc · Latin script

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

Chi is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Vietnam than in any other country. In Vietnamese, recorded as genus.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 29K(measured from records)
  • VNVietnam≈1 in 361
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 3.2K

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.

Vietnam (inferred from the name graph)

≈270,000 people, est.

Sources
376 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 361 (inferred from the name graph)

Vietnam, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

Locally spelled Chii in MY Malaysia, NG Nigeria, SG Singapore and Chî in DZ Algeria.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

synonym of sí (yes)

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.

How Chi is read(measured from records)

Chi 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.

  • English33%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Chi in English.

  • Vietnamese7.1%

    genus

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

    Hán-Việt: cành nhánh; chi phái.

    as a nameTên Họ Người Việt Nam

  • Spanish5.8%

    synonym of sí (yes)

    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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)

Chi 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 Chi is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
VN Vietnam≈270,000 est.≈1 in 361—Chi6
NG Nigeria≈17,000 est.≈1 in 13K—Chii53
US United States11,3411 in 29K8.5KChi376
MY Malaysia≈10,000 est.≈1 in 3.2K—Chii63
DZ Algeria≈4,600 est.≈1 in 9.3K—Chî5
AU Australia≈2,600 est.≈1 in 9.6K4Chi170
SG Singapore≈770 est.≈1 in 8.1K—Chii76

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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM). 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)

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

  • Vietnamese given name10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Vietnam

    Also written Chí, Chỉ, Chì, Chĩ, Chi'

  • Korean surname12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in South Korea

    Also written 치, Chí, Chî, Ċĥi, Chï

  • Chinese given name14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, China

    Also written Chï, Ch'I, Chî, Çhï, Çhį

  • a separate surname28 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, Mexico, India

    Also written Chí, Chỉ, Chị, Chî, Čhî

  • a separate name7 spellings in the group

    Also written Chī, Chí, Chỉ, Čhī, Chị

  • Malay name15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia

    Languages: Malay, Indonesian

    Also written Çhî, Chị, Çhï, Chì, Çhi

  • Japanese name5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Japan

    Also written Chị, Chí, Chỉ

80 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)

Chi is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In cdo, ( f.rt Used for the coll. a yKM numerative of skeins, and of J^、 Bmall bunches, as of coarse • paper, flowers, coiffure - cord, inceuse - sticks, etc. (46) Chi6. Chid\ A coll. word, as in chid、 s&a* not much, a very little, a trifling amount.

    as a wordAn Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect

  • In sit-pro, abstain

    as a wordStarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)

  • In Japanese, The hiragana syllable ち (chi) or the katakana syllable チ (chi) in Hepburn romanization.

    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)

0500100015002000Zhi Qian, b. 101Qi Baishi, b. 1864Chi Haotian, b. 1929Johnnie To, b. 1955Chi Po-lin, b. 1964Katherine Tai, b. 1974James Wan, b. 1977Ji Xinpeng, b. 1977Chi Pu, b. 1993Chou Tzuyu, b. 1999
  • Zhi Qianb. 101CNnot in their usual name3rd century Buddhist monk and translator active in the Kingdom of Wu
  • Qi Baishib. 1864CNnot in their usual nameChinese painter (1864-1957)
  • Chi Haotianb. 1929CNformer Minister of National Defense of China
  • Johnnie Tob. 1955CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong filmmaker (born 1955)
  • Chi Po-linb. 1964TWTaiwanese documentary filmmaker, photographer and environmentalist (1964-2017)
  • Katherine Taib. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican attorney (born 1974)
  • James Wanb. 1977MYnot in their usual nameMalaysian-Australian filmmaker (born 1977)
  • Ji Xinpengb. 1977CNnot in their usual nameChinese badminton player
  • Chi Pub. 1993VNVietnamese singer, actress, television personality and model (born 1993)
  • Chou Tzuyub. 1999TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese singer (born 1999)

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 70 sources across 36 countries.

Official registers attesting Chi
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020208.5K#4,052
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020107.3K#4,843
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20206K#2,281
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020005.7K#5,561
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20205.4K#2,281
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)202517—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20259—
AU AustraliaAustralian national given names (aggregated state BDM)19914—
AU AustraliaAU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD)20142—
AU AustraliaSA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present)20142—

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 Chi mean?
In Vietnamese, genus
Where does the name Chi come from?
synonym of sí (yes) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Chi have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 273 thousand people named Chi in Vietnam, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled chi.
How common is the name Chi?
In the United States, the national register counted 11,341 people named Chi in 2020, about 1 in 29 thousand residents.

What do you want to know about Chi?

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

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, “Chi”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Chi parses inside a full name →