Barong
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A cutting weapon similar to a cleaver, with a thick back and thin razor-like edge, used by the Moros of the Philippines
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Barong is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Gambia than in any other country, where it is the 75th most common surname.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 80K(inferred from the name graph)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 1.5M
- GMGambia≈1 in 1Kas Marong
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 Barong 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.
- Gambia (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 71 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 80K (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,100 named Marong, est.
Highest-authority source
Philippines, 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 Marong in ES Spain, NO Norway, GM Gambia and 2 more.
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)
the barong: the beneficent force of nature which works against evil spirits, embodied in the figure of an animal carried by two men, with a lion's mask
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
How Barong is read(measured from records)
Barong 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.
- English60%
A cutting weapon similar to a cleaver, with a thick back and thin razor-like edge, used by the Moros of the Philippines.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish20%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Barong in Spanish.
- Indonesian7.1%
the barong: the beneficent force of nature which works against evil spirits, embodied in the figure of an animal carried by two men, with a lion's mask
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Swahili5.2%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Barong in Swahili.
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)
Barong 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM Gambia | #75 | ≈2,100 est. | ≈1 in 1K | 1 | Marong | 26 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 80K | — | Barong | 24 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 1.5M | — | Barong | 13 |
| ES Spain | — | 130as Marong | 1 in 385K | 130 | Marong | 8 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈96 est. | ≈1 in 648K | — | Marong | 2 |
| NO Norway | — | 50as Marong | 1 in 109K | 50 | Marong | 7 |
| SE Sweden | — | 41as Marong | 1 in 249K | 41 | — | 3 |
| JM Jamaica | — | ≈10 est. | ≈1 in 290K | — | Marong | 1 |
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: INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); IEC — Nominated Candidates National Assembly Elections 2022. 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)
Barong 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 ban, beneficent force of nature which works against evil spirits, embodied in the figure of an animal
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Filipino, barong Tagalog (a Philippine embroidered long-sleeved formal shirt for men)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Cebuano, a barong; a bladed weapon
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In msk, barong (a kind of bolo)
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.
Evidence(measured from records)
No register attests this spelling yet
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Barong come from?
- the barong: the beneficent force of nature which works against evil spirits, embodied in the figure of an animal carried by two men, with a lion's mask Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What does the name Barong mean?
- In English, A cutting weapon similar to a cleaver, with a thick back and thin razor-like edge, used by the Moros of the Philippines.
- In which country does Barong have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.1 thousand people named Marong in the Gambia, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Barong?
- In Spain, the national register counted 130 people named Marong, about 1 in 385 thousand residents.
- How common is Barong compared with other names?
- In the Gambia, Barong is the 75th most common surname of 178 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Barong?
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/barongThe 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, “Barong” — the 75th most common surname in Gambia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.