Loh

surname · Latin script

Meaning: Toponymic surname from mhd

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

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

Loh is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Malaysia than in any other country, where it is the 84th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 561(inferred from the name graph)
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 652
  • IDIndonesia≈1 in 6.8K

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.

Malaysia (inferred from the name graph)

≈58,000 people, est.

Sources
124 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 561 (inferred from the name graph)

Malaysia, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Toponymic surname from mhd. lō(ch), mnd. lo(ch) ‘Gehölz u.ä.’; possibly also from mhd. lō ‘zur Lohegewinnung angelegtes Gehölz’. Bearer count: 1104.

Sources 1

  • Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

Where in the world(measured from records)

Loh 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 Loh is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
MY Malaysia#84≈58,000 est.≈1 in 561—Loh123
ID Indonesia—≈39,000 est.≈1 in 6.8K—Loh70
CN China—≈29,000 est.≈1 in 47K—Loh18
SG Singapore#235≈9,500 est.≈1 in 652—Loh124
US United States—2,3791 in 140K2.5KLoh124
CI Côte d’Ivoire—≈950 est.≈1 in 29K679——
HK Hong Kong—≈810 est.≈1 in 9K—Loh11

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; 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)

Loh is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Loeh, Löh

  • Spanish surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Lôh, Lóh, Löh

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Malaysia, Singapore, United States

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Lóh

  • French surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Singapore, Malaysia, United States

    Also written Lôh

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Löh

  • Thai surname75 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, United States

    Languages: Thai, Lao

    Also written Lau, หล่อ, Lor, ลอ, ลือ

51 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)

Loh is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In German, from ahd. lōh, mhd. loch 'buschwald; place where forest stood'

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In German, Orthographic variation im Auslaut: ss vs. ß nach Konsonant; 20+63 Belege.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

  • In German, Toponymic surname from a place/dwelling name.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

  • topographic name for someone living by a wood or brushland. Middle Low German lo, loge, lage.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In Indonesian, what!?, oh come off it!, hang on... (did I hear that right?)

    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)

500100015002000Huineng, b. 638Luo Guanzhong, b. 1334Luo Ruiqing, b. 1906Lo Wei, b. 1918Lowell Lo, b. 1950Lo Mang, b. 1952Clara Law, b. 1957Ken Lo, b. 1959Show Lo, b. 1979Loh Kean Yew, b. 1997
  • Huinengb. 638CNnot in their usual namesemi-legendary Chinese Chan (Zen) patriarch
  • Luo Guanzhongb. 1334CNnot in their usual name14th-century Chinese writer
  • Luo Ruiqingb. 1906CNnot in their usual nameChinese general, politician (1906-1978)
  • Lo Weib. 1918CNnot in their usual nameChinese film director (1918–1996)
  • Lowell Lob. 1950USnot in their usual nameHong Kong male singer-songwriter, film music composer, and actor
  • Lo Mangb. 1952CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong martial artist and actor
  • Clara Lawb. 1957AUnot in their usual nameAustralian film director
  • Ken Lob. 1959CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong martial artist
  • Show Lob. 1979TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese singer, actor and dancer
  • Loh Kean Yewb. 1997SGSingaporean badminton 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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Loh,
InformalHi Loh,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 31 sources across 18 countries.

Official registers attesting Loh
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020202.5K#12,100
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020102.4K#12,921
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020002.1K#13,064
CI Côte d’Ivoirenomprenoms.ci — ranked Ivorian surname frequencies—679#752
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 6

  • 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)
  • Kotík, Antonín, Naše příjmení (nové vydání, 1897)

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 Loh come from?
Toponymic surname from mhd. lō(ch), mnd. lo(ch) ‘Gehölz u.ä.’; possibly also from mhd. lō ‘zur Lohegewinnung angelegtes Gehölz’. Bearer count: 1104. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte.
How do you pronounce Loh?
A machine transcription gives /ˈɫoʊ/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Loh mean?
Recorded meaning: Toponymic surname from mhd.
In which country does Loh have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 58 thousand people named Loh in Malaysia, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled loh.
How common is the name Loh?
In the United States, the national register counted 2,379 people named Loh in 2010, about 1 in 140 thousand residents.
How common is Loh compared with other names?
In Malaysia, Loh is the 84th most common surname of 291,743 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Loh?

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

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, “Loh” — the 84th most common surname in Malaysia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Loh parses inside a full name →