Mou
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Chinese from the name of a state of Mou that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 BC)
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/mʉː/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Mou is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 1.8M(measured from records)
- DZAlgeria≈1 in 4.3K
- MAMorocco≈1 in 17K
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
- 190 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 4.3K (inferred from the name graph)
≈17,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Algeria, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Mòu in DZ Algeria, Moue in CM Cameroon and Moù in MA Morocco.
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)
Chinese from the name of a state of Mou that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 BC). Descendants of the ruling class of this state adopted its name as their surname.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Mou 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 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 82K | — | Mou | 33 |
| DZ Algeria | ≈9,900 est. | ≈1 in 4.3K | — | Mòu | 9 |
| MA Morocco | ≈2,100 est. | ≈1 in 17K | — | Moù | 13 |
| FR France | ≈450 est. | ≈1 in 151K | 8 | — | 2 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈320 est. | ≈1 in 102K | — | Mou | 22 |
| CM Cameroon | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 96K | — | Moue | 3 |
| HK Hong Kong | ≈230 est. | ≈1 in 31K | — | Mou | 25 |
| US United States | 188 | 1 in 1.8M | 944 | Mou | 190 |
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; 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)
Mou 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 English, Sentence-final particle, forms a tag question.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
3. Laotian: unexplained.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In enm, alternative form of mowe (“haystack”)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Italian, toffee (soft candy made from milk and caramelized sugar)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In pro, third-person singular present indicative of mover
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)
- Mou Tsung-sanb. 1909TWChinese philosopher (1909-1995)
- Wu Ningkunb. 1920CNnot in their usual nameChinese academic
- Wu Lanyingb. 1955CNnot in their usual nameOlympic sport shooter
- Emily Wub. 1958CNnot in their usual nameChinese-born American writer
- Wu Gangb. 1960CNnot in their usual nameChinese actor (1960- )
- Eric Moob. 1963MYnot in their usual nameMalaysian singer
- Wu Danb. 1968CNnot in their usual nameOlympic medalist in volleyball
- Erica Moub. 1990ITItalian singer-songwriter
- Mu Zhongshengb. 1991CNnot in their usual nameChinese speed skater
- Wu Hsiao-Linb. 1995TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese 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)
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 31 sources across 18 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 96 | #39,915 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 92 | #39,915 |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
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 Mou come from?
- Chinese from the name of a state of Mou that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 BC). Descendants of the ruling class of this state adopted its name as their surname. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- How do you pronounce Mou?
- A machine transcription gives /mʉː/ (IPA) for Hindi.
- What does the name Mou mean?
- Recorded meaning: Chinese from the name of a state of Mou that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 BC).
- Is Mou a male or female name?
- Mou 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.
- In which country does Mou have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 17 thousand people named Mou in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled mou.
- How common is the name Mou?
- In the United States, the national register counted 188 people named Mou in 2020, about 1 in 1.8 million residents.
What do you want to know about Mou?
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/mouThe 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, “Mou”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.