Oei
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A surname, most commonly found in Indonesia
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/oʊi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Oei is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Hong Kong it is the 68th most common given name.
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 1.8Kas Oi(inferred from the name graph)
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 5.8Kas Oi
- THThailand≈1 in 14Kas อ้อย
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 Oei 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
- 195 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 42K (inferred from the name graph)
≈23,000 named Oi, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Indonesia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Oi in US United States, MY Malaysia, HK Hong Kong and 3 more and ไอ in TH Thailand.
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)
obsolete spelling of Wi, a Chinese Indonesian surname of Hokkien origin
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
How Oei is read(measured from records)
Oei 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.
- English57%
A surname, most commonly found in Indonesia.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Indonesian18%
obsolete spelling of Wi, a Chinese Indonesian surname of Hokkien origin
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Oei 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 | — | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 61K | — | Oi | 45 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈6,400 est. | ≈1 in 42K | listed | Oi | 66 |
| MY Malaysia | #701 | ≈5,600 est. | ≈1 in 5.8K | — | Oi | 52 |
| TH Thailand | — | ≈4,900 est. | ≈1 in 14K | #76,169 | ไอ | 73 |
| HK Hong Kong | #68 | ≈4,100 est. | ≈1 in 1.8K | — | Oi | 67 |
| US United States | — | 3,483as Ai | 1 in 96K | 2.9K | Oi | 195 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 30K | — | Oi | 46 |
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. 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)
Oei is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Dutch, an expression of uncertainty or mild shock; similar to wow, oh dear, oh my, oy
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In tvk, water
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In wuu, Greet
as a wordAn English-Chinese Vocabulary of the Shanghai 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)
- Huang Xianfanb. 1899CNnot in their usual nameChinese historian, ethnologist and educator (1899-1982)
- Anna May Wongb. 1905USnot in their usual nameChinese American actress (1905-1961)
- James Wongb. 1959USnot in their usual nameHong Kong and American director, screenwriter and producer
- B. D. Wongb. 1960USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Anthony Wong Chau-sangb. 1961CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor, screenwriter and film producer (*1961)
- Jensen Huangb. 1963USnot in their usual nameAmerican entrepreneur and businessman; founder and CEO of Nvidia
- Penny Wongb. 1968MYnot in their usual nameAustralian politician
- Lawrence Wongb. 1972SGnot in their usual namePrime Minister of Singapore since 2024
- Taob. 1993CNnot in their usual nameChinese singer-songwriter, rapper and actor
- Joshua Wongb. 1996CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong politician
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 10 sources across 5 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 466 | #48,879 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 444 | #47,706 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 282 | #65,668 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
- Where does the name Oei come from?
- obsolete spelling of Wi, a Chinese Indonesian surname of Hokkien origin Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Oei?
- A machine transcription gives /oʊi/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Oei mean?
- In English, A surname, most commonly found in Indonesia.
- In which country does Oei have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 23 thousand people named Oi in China, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Oei?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,483 people named Ai in 2020, about 1 in 96 thousand residents.
- How common is Oei compared with other names?
- In Hong Kong, Oei is the 68th most common given name of 23,276 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Oei?
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/oeiThe 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, “Oei” — the 68th most common given name in Hong Kong. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.