Vu

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in Vietnamese: to slander, to libel

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/vu˧˧/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Vu is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Vietnam than in any other country, where it is the 6th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • VNVietnam≈1 in 94(inferred from the name graph)
  • AUAustralia≈1 in 5.6K
  • USUnited States1 in 9.2K

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)

≈1,100,000 people, est.

#597 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

Sources
443 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 94 (inferred from the name graph)

Vietnam, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Vũ in MO Macao.

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)

Initialism of volume unit.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

How Vu is read(measured from records)

Vu 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.

  • Vietnamese73%

    to slander, to libel

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • English17%

    Initialism of volume unit.

    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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)

Vu 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.

Where Vu is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
VN Vietnam#6≈1,100,000 est.≈1 in 944Vu259
CN China—≈50,000 est.≈1 in 28K—Vu14
US United States—36,1791 in 9.2K44KVu443
AO Angola#62≈23,000 est.≈1 in 1.4K—Vu4
ID Indonesia—≈5,500 est.≈1 in 49K—Vu42
AU Australia#454≈4,500 est.≈1 in 5.6K4Vu220
NO Norway—1,4561 in 3.8K1.5KVu34
MO Macao#236≈690 est.≈1 in 896—Vũ7

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: This page is a comprehensive guide to Vietnamese last names published by Vietnam Teaching Jobs, offering insights into t; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Vu is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate surname31 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Canada

    Also written Vũ, Vû, Vü, Vủ, Vù

  • a separate name10 spellings in the group

    Also written Vữ, V-U, Vũ, Vű, Vụ

  • Spanish surname16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, El Salvador, Brazil, United Kingdom

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Vũ, V'U, Vü, Vǔ, V̲ũ̲

  • French surname11 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Belgium

    Also written Vũ, Vù, Vû, Vú, Vů

  • Czech surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, United States

    Languages: Czech, Slovak, Polish

    Also written Vú, Vũ

  • Norwegian surname13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Denmark, Sweden, Norway

    Languages: Norwegian, Danish, Swedish

    Also written Vũ, Vü, Vū, Vụ

  • Finnish surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Finland, Sweden

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Vũ, Vụ, Vů

60 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Vu is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Japanese, The hiragana syllable ゔ (vu) or the katakana syllable ヴ (vu) in Hepburn romanization.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for Vanuatu since 1980.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Italian, The name of the Latin-script letter V/v.; vee

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In German, initialism of Versäumnisurteil

    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)

1850190019502000Plaek Phibunsongkhram, b. 1897Momofuku Ando, b. 1910Goh Chok Tong, b. 1941John Woo, b. 1946Ronny Yu, b. 1950John Lone, b. 1952Ping Wu, b. 1956Vivian Wu, b. 1966Daniel Wu, b. 1974Kris Wu, b. 1990
  • 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
  • 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
  • Ronny Yub. 1950CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter
  • John Loneb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
  • Ping Wub. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
  • Vivian Wub. 1966CNnot in their usual nameChinese actress
  • 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)

FormalKính gửi Ông Vu,Dear Mr. Vu, (English)
InformalChào anh Vu,Hi Vu, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 49 sources across 22 countries.

Official registers attesting Vu
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202044K#773
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201036K#962
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200026K#1,247
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—1.5K#713
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)2025728—
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

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 Vu come from?
Initialism of volume unit. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
How do you pronounce Vu?
A machine transcription gives /vu˧˧/ (IPA) for Vietnamese.
What does the name Vu mean?
In Vietnamese, to slander, to libel
In which country does Vu have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 1.1 million people named Vu in Vietnam, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled vu.
How common is the name Vu?
In the United States, the national register counted 36,179 people named Vu in 2010, about 1 in 9.2 thousand residents.
How common is Vu compared with other names?
In Vietnam, Vu is the 6th most common surname of 62,915 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Vu?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/vu

The 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, “Vu” — the 6th most common surname in Vietnam. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Vu parses inside a full name →