Lao
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/laʊ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Lao is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 5.8K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 56K
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 8.7K
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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 339 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 5.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈110,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Philippines, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
2. Chinese ^: probably from the name of Lao Mountain in Shandong province, adopted as a surname most likely during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 bc).
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Lao is read(measured from records)
Lao is one spelling over 2 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.
- English58%
A Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish17%
Lao (relating to the Lao language)
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Lao 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 13K | — | Lao | 35 |
| PH Philippines | #447 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.8K | — | Lao | 136 |
| US United States | — | 5,897 | 1 in 56K | 6.7K | Lao | 339 |
| ES Spain | — | 1,881 | 1 in 27K | 1.9K | Lao | 45 |
| FR France | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 61K | 192 | — | 5 |
| HK Hong Kong | — | ≈840 est. | ≈1 in 8.7K | — | Lao | 26 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈200 est. | ≈1 in 32K | — | Lao | 34 |
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; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); 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 recorded senses(measured from records)
Lao 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.
2. Chinese ^: probably from the name of Lao Mountain in Shandong province, adopted as a surname most likely during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 bc).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
This name is also found in the Philippines.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
Chinese a Cantonese form of Liu
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
a Cantonese form of Liu
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
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)
- Emperor Wu of Hanb. 156not in their usual nameseventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China (157 BC–87 BC)
- Liu Shaoqib. 1898CNnot in their usual name2nd President of the People's Republic of China (1898–1969)
- Liu Xiaobob. 1955CNnot in their usual nameChinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist (1955–2017)
- Gordon Liub. 1955CNnot in their usual nameChinese martial arts film actor (born 1955)
- Andy Laub. 1961CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor, film producer, and singer
- Lucy Liub. 1968USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1968)
- Liu Yangb. 1978CNnot in their usual nameChinese astronaut
- Liu Yifeib. 1987CNnot in their usual nameChinese-American actress and singer (born 1987)
- Simu Liub. 1989CNnot in their usual nameChinese-Canadian actor and author (born 1989)
- Dallas Liub. 2001USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 45 sources across 21 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 6.7K | #5,096 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 5.9K | #5,856 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 4.5K | #6,850 |
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 1.9K | #2,548 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 1.9K | #2,548 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 247 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 192 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 58 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 29 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 17 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 11 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 11 | — |
Reference works 7
- 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)
- 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
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
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
- Where does the name Lao come from?
- 2. Chinese ^: probably from the name of Lao Mountain in Shandong province, adopted as a surname most likely during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 bc). Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- How do you pronounce Lao?
- A machine transcription gives /laʊ/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Lao mean?
- In English, A Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia.
- In which country does Lao have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 110 thousand people named Lao in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled lao.
- How common is the name Lao?
- In the United States, the national register counted 5,897 people named Lao in 2010, about 1 in 56 thousand residents.
- How common is Lao compared with other names?
- In the Philippines, Lao is the 447th most common surname of 876,464 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Lao?
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/laoThe 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, “Lao” — the 447th most common surname in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.