Ki
loc · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Ki is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Pakistan than in any other country. Recorded meaning: there are two Chinese characters for the surname Ki, but one is extremely rare. Only the common one is discussed here. Only one Ki clan uses this other character, the Haengju Ki clan.
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 2.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- DZAlgeria≈1 in 5.9K
- KPNorth Korea≈1 in 9.7K
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.
- Pakistan (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 301 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.5K (inferred from the name graph)
≈8,500 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Hong Kong, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled 키 in KR South Korea, Kí in DZ Algeria and K-I in DE Germany.
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)
there are two Chinese characters for the surname Ki, but one is extremely rare. Only the common one is discussed here. Only one Ki clan uses this other character, the Haengju Ki clan. The founder of the Haengju Ki clan, U-S6ng, is said to have been one of three sons of the 40th generation descendant of Kija, the founder of the ancient Choson kingdom in about 194 BC. The other two sons, UP’yong and U-kyong, founded the Han clan and the Son’gan clan respectively.
Sources 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Digital Pāḷi Dictionary
- Etymological Dictionary of Hungarian
- YorùbáName Dictionary
- YorùbáName Dictionary (unreviewed entries)
Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Ki 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PK Pakistan | — | ≈8,500 est. | ≈1 in 28K | 1 | — | 18 |
| DZ Algeria | — | ≈7,300 est. | ≈1 in 5.9K | — | Kí | 7 |
| VN Vietnam | — | ≈5,300 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | Ki | 70 |
| HK Hong Kong | — | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.5K | — | Ki | 95 |
| DE Germany | — | ≈2,800 est. | ≈1 in 29K | — | K-I | 5 |
| KP North Korea | — | ≈2,600 est. | ≈1 in 9.7K | 2 | — | 20 |
| KR South Korea | #482 | ≈810 est. | ≈1 in 64K | 30K | 키 | 170 |
| US United States | — | 784 | 1 in 424K | 2.3K | Ki | 301 |
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: KOSIS — 2015 census surnames; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names; Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) — Form-33 List of Contesting Candidates, 2018 General Election. 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)
Ki 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 Hungarian, out, outside
as a wordEtymological Dictionary of Hungarian
In sit-pro, sneeze
as a wordStarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)
In jpx-pro, notch
as a wordStarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)
In jpx-pro, wine
as a wordStarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)
In rar, preposition: to, as of place; _ki Avarua_ ‘to Avarua’; _raro_ ‘below’, _ki raro_ ‘to below’, _ruŋa_ ‘above’, _ki ruŋa_ ‘to above’, etc.); at, in; into; on, to, upon; towards, at; concerning, respecting, with (the ablative of instrument); in consequence of, according to; simply transitive, connecting the verb with its object
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Māori, preposition: to (of place, of a person); after verbs of motion, desire, etc.; into; on to, upon; towards, at; against, at, with (indicating opposition); for, in quest of; concerning of, respecting; in consequence of; by means of, with (of instrument); at, with, on, in; according to; in the opinion of; in the event of
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)
- Menciusb. 372not in their usual nameChinese Confucian philosopher (372–289 BC)
- Shang Yangb. 390CNnot in their usual nameQin State statesman, chancellor and reformer (c. 390–338 BC)
- Dan of Zhoub. 1100not in their usual nameLegendary regional lord, regent, and culture hero of the early Zhou dynasty
- Wenb. 1112not in their usual nameKing of Zhou
- Ji Pengfeib. 1910CNnot in their usual nameChinese politician (1910-2000)
- Chi Chengb. 1944TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese track and field athlete and Republic of China politician
- Johnnie Tob. 1955CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong filmmaker (born 1955)
- Katherine Taib. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican attorney (born 1974)
- Ki Bo-baeb. 1988KRSouth Korean archer
- Ki Sung-yuengb. 1989KRSouth Korean association football 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 37 sources across 22 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KR South Korea | KOSIS — 2015 census surnames | 2015 | 30K | #62 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2.3K | #4,836 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.4K | #4,836 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1K | #25,603 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 784 | #29,947 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 586 | #36,129 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2022 | 7 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2023 | 5 | — |
| KP North Korea | Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names | — | 2 | #54 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- 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 Ki mean, and where does it come from?
- there are two Chinese characters for the surname Ki, but one is extremely rare. Only the common one is discussed here. Only one Ki clan uses this other character, the Haengju Ki clan. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names and Digital Pāḷi Dictionary and 3 other sources.
- In which country does Ki have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 8.5 thousand people named Ki in Pakistan, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Ki?
- In the United States, the national register counted 784 people named Ki in 2010, about 1 in 424 thousand residents.
- How common is Ki compared with other names?
- In South Korea, Ki is the 482nd most common surname of 14,133 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Ki?
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/kiThe 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, “Ki” — the 482nd most common surname in South Korea. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.