Ngu
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in Vietnamese: stupid; idiotic; moronic
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ŋɡuː/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ngu is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Vietnam than in any other country.
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 5.1K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 81K
- USUnited States1 in 401K
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.
- Vietnam (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 175 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 5.1K (inferred from the name graph)
≈9,400 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Malaysia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
stupid; idiotic; moronic
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
How Ngu is read(measured from records)
Ngu is one spelling over 4 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.
- English48%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Ngu in English.
- Vietnamese16%
stupid; idiotic; moronic
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
unexplained.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
- Malay9.0%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Ngu in Malay.
- Chinese5.6%
Goose
as a wordrecorded as wuuA Vocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect
Germ
as a wordrecorded as wuuA Vocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Ngu 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VN Vietnam | — | ≈9,400 est. | ≈1 in 10K | listed | — | 1 |
| MY Malaysia | #832 | ≈6,400 est. | ≈1 in 5.1K | — | Ngu | 68 |
| CM Cameroon | #869 | ≈4,200 est. | ≈1 in 6.5K | — | Ngu | 22 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 167K | — | Ngu | 16 |
| US United States | — | 829 | 1 in 401K | 1.1K | Ngu | 175 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 81K | 1 | Ngu | 90 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈190 est. | ≈1 in 33K | — | Ngu | 37 |
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; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present). 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)
Ngu is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
El que nada
as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
In cdo, nging) ry me = x the mouth of the fish turned upward at the surface of the water, response in singing
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
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)
- Plaek Phibunsongkhramb. 1897THnot in their usual namePrime Minister of Thailand, 1938–44 and 1948–57 (1897–1964)
- Momofuku Andob. 1910JPnot in their usual nameTaiwanese-Japanese businessman, created instant noodle (ramyeon), Nissin Chikin Ramen
- Chien-Shiung Wub. 1912USnot in their usual nameChinese-American physicist (1912–1997) (death at 85 years)
- Wu Yib. 1938CNnot in their usual nameVice Premier of China
- Goh Chok Tongb. 1941SGnot in their usual name2nd Prime Minister of Singapore from 1990 to 2004
- John Woob. 1946CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong film director, screenwriter and film producer
- John Loneb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Ping Wub. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Daniel Wub. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Kris Wub. 1990CNnot in their usual nameChinese-born Canadian rapper and convicted sex criminal (1990–)
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 27 sources across 16 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.1K | #24,318 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 829 | #28,729 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 642 | #33,528 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name 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 Ngu mean, and where does it come from?
- stupid; idiotic; moronic Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Ngu?
- A machine transcription gives /ŋɡuː/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Ngu have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 9.4 thousand people named Ngu in Vietnam, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Ngu?
- In the United States, the national register counted 829 people named Ngu in 2010, about 1 in 401 thousand residents.
- How common is Ngu compared with other names?
- In Malaysia, Ngu is the 832nd most common surname of 291,743 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Ngu?
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/nguThe 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, “Ngu” — the 832nd most common surname in Malaysia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.