Min
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: Abbreviation of minute
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/mɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Min is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In South Korea it is the 38th most common surname.
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 2.3K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 48K
- KRSouth Korea1 in 302as 민
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 Min 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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 288 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈280,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
North Korea, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled 민 in KR South Korea, VN Vietnam.
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)
Queen Min, conservative supporter opposed to the Independence Party.
Sources 1
- Korea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary
Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.
How Min is read(measured from records)
Min is one spelling over 5 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.
- English35%
Abbreviation of minute.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Egyptian fertility god; lang., China
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
- Korean15%
Queen Min, conservative supporter opposed to the Independence Party.
as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary
the source of this name was the character’s former meaning, ‘sympathy for those who die young’. The descendants of various people who died young adopted Min as their surname.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
nickname from Middle Dutch minne ‘beloved’, ‘sweetheart’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
from a reduced form of the personal name Dominicus (see Dominick).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
- Chinese14%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Min in Chinese.
- Burmese8.3%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Min in Burmese.
- Malay6.0%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Min in Malay.
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)
Min 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 | — | ≈280,000 est. | ≈1 in 5K | — | Min | 58 |
| KR South Korea | #38 | 171,799as 민 | 1 in 302 | 181K | 민 | 242 |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | — | Min | 52 |
| KP North Korea | — | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Min | 53 |
| VN Vietnam | — | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 8K | — | 민 | 2 |
| US United States | — | 6,982 | 1 in 48K | 7.8K | Min | 288 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Min | 58 |
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 — surname population with hanja variants; KOSIS — 2015 census surnames; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020. 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Emperor Zhaozong of Tangb. 867not in their usual namefinal emperor of the Tang dynasty of China (r. 888-904)
- Yu Minb. 1926CNChinese nuclear physicist
- Leon Laib. 1966CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong singer and actor
- Sharla Cheungb. 1967CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actress
- Lee Min Jinb. 1968KRAmerican writer
- Choe Minb. 1974KRSouth Korean actor (1974-)
- Namkoong Minb. 1978KRSouth Korean actor
- Yao Mingb. 1980CNnot in their usual nameChinese basketball player (born 1980)
- Kang Minb. 1982KRSouth Korean electronic sports player
- Lee Geum-minb. 1994KRSouth Korean 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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 77 sources across 42 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KR South Korea | KOSIS — 2015 census surnames | 2015 | 181K | #40 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 7.8K | #4,438 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 7.4K | #2,222 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 7K | #5,026 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 5K | #6,254 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 4.4K | #2,222 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2018 | 7 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2023 | 5 | — |
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 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
- How common is the name Min?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,982 people named Min in 2010, about 1 in 48 thousand residents.
- How common is Min compared with other names?
- In South Korea, Min is the 38th most common surname of 14,133 surnames recorded there.
- Where does the name Min come from?
- Queen Min, conservative supporter opposed to the Independence Party. Recorded by Korea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary.
- In which country does Min have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 278 thousand people named Min in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled min.
- How do you pronounce Min?
- A machine transcription gives /mɪn/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Min mean?
- In English, Abbreviation of minute.
- Is Min a male or female name?
- Min is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
What do you want to know about Min?
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/minThe 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, “Min” — the 38th most common surname in South Korea. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.