See
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
See is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Malaysia it is the 42nd most common given name. Recorded meaning: from ahd./as. seo 'sea, lake'; many names later merged with SIEG.
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 1.4K(inferred from the name graph)
- IDIndonesia≈1 in 21K
- SGSingapore≈1 in 3.5Kas Seng
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 See 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.
- United States (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 369 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.4K (inferred from the name graph)
43,275 named Son, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Malaysia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
17 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Seng in MY Malaysia, ID Indonesia, Siri in NO Norway, SE Sweden and ซี 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)
from ahd./as. seo 'sea, lake'; many names later merged with SIEG
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
See 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 43,275as Son | 1 in 7.7K | 42K | See | 369 |
| FI Finland | — | 28,915as Sari | 1 in 193 | 31K | — | 9 |
| MY Malaysia | #42 | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | — | Seng | 119 |
| TH Thailand | #238 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.7K | #173,372 | ซี | 125 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 21K | — | Seng | 100 |
| SE Sweden | — | 10,123as Siri | 1 in 1K | 10K | Siri | 12 |
| NO Norway | — | 8,256as Siri | 1 in 662 | 28K | Siri | 19 |
| SG Singapore | #242 | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 3.5K | — | See | 144 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 38 | 1 in 455K | 122 | See | 16 |
43,275 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020, counting the spelling son. 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; DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017). 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)
See 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, Plate shows o/ö vowel variation in this surname type. Bearer count: 111.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In English, the sea-shore or beside a lake, from ME see sea, lake (OE
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In English, To perceive or detect someone or something with the eyes, or as if by sight.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, to=do=lo;mema, an exclam.=do _ see! take notice ! to see before, luwod
as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language
In German, ahd., as. seo "See, Meer" bildete viele N., die aber schon früh mit den zu SIEG gehörigen zusammenfielen; s. dort Se(e)|bald, fried, mann, wald
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
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)
- Xi Shib. 506CNnot in their usual nameone of the renowned Four Great Beauties of ancient China (b. 506 BC)
- Shi Nai'anb. 1296CNnot in their usual nameChinese writer (1296-1372)
- Su Bengb. 1918TWnot in their usual nameActivist and former Senior Advisor to the President of Taiwan (1918–2019)
- Elliot Seeb. 1927USAmerican test pilot and NASA astronaut (1927-1966)
- Simon Szeb. 1936TWnot in their usual nameAmerican electrical engineer (1936–2023)
- Linda McCartneyb. 1941USnot in their usual nameAmerican photographer, musician and animal rights activist (1941–1998)
- Stan Shihb. 1944TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese businessman, Chairman Emeritus of Acer Incorporated (born 1944)
- Nansun Shib. 1951CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong film producer and entrepreneur (1951–2026)
- Shi Jiayib. 1983CNnot in their usual nameChinese footballer
- Shi Tingmaob. 1991CNnot in their usual nameChinese diver
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 35 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 9.1K | #3,911 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 8.9K | #3,894 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 8.4K | #3,880 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.2K | #8,621 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 440 | #8,621 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 37 | #36,710 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 34 | #10,890 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1982 | 34 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1990 | 31 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1981 | 30 | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 28 | #20,056 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1984 | 27 | — |
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)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
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 See mean, and where does it come from?
- from ahd./as. seo 'sea, lake'; many names later merged with SIEG Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- How common is the name See?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 38 people named See, about 1 in 455 thousand residents.
- How common is See compared with other names?
- In Malaysia, See is the 42nd most common given name of 388,685 given names recorded there.
- In which country does See have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 43 thousand people named Son, more than in any other country we hold.
What do you want to know about See?
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/seeThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “See” — the 42nd most common given name in Malaysia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.