Heme

surname · Latin script

Meaning: The component of hemoglobin (and other hemoproteins) responsible for binding oxygen

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

/əm/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Heme is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in France than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • FRFrance≈1 in 380K(inferred from the name graph)
  • DKDenmark1 in 1.2M
  • BRBrazil1 in 3M

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.

France (inferred from the name graph)

≈180 people, est.

Sources
85 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 380K (inferred from the name graph)

France, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

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 component of hemoglobin (and other hemoproteins) responsible for binding oxygen. It consists of an iron ion that binds oxygen and a porphyrin ring that binds the globin molecules; one molecule binds one molecule of oxygen.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Heme 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 Heme is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
FR France≈180 est.≈1 in 380K9Heme85
BR Brazil701 in 3M70——
US United States≈50 est.≈1 in 6.6Mlisted—3
DK Denmark51 in 1.2M5——
SE Sweden21 in 5.1M2——

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: INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); the us-wru-surnames-voterfile register. 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)

Heme is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname7 spellings in the group

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

    Languages: English, German

    Also written Hemê, Ḧeme

  • Turkish surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, Syria

    Also written Ḧeme

  • Portuguese surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, Mexico, United States, Spain

    Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

    Also written Hemé, Hême, Ḧeme

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Hème, Hême, Ḧeme

33 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)

Heme 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 English, Henry, Lord Karnes, Scottish jurist

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  • In English, and philosopher

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  • In cdo, greatly startled, to jump out of one's skin

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • In enm, inhabitant, villager

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

  • In cdo, to bring one out of prison, (for trial)

    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.

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalMadame, Monsieur,Dear Heme, (English)
InformalMadame, Monsieur,Hello, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 7 sources across 6 countries.

Official registers attesting Heme
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—70#82,471
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)190144—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)195140—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)191137—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)192134—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)197133—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)194127—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)196123—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)198121—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)193121—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)189115—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19919—

Reference works 1

  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)

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 Heme mean, and where does it come from?
The component of hemoglobin (and other hemoproteins) responsible for binding oxygen. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
How do you pronounce Heme?
A machine transcription gives /əm/ (IPA) for French.
In which country does Heme have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 178 people named Heme in France, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled heme.
How common is the name Heme?
In Brazil, the national register counted 70 people named Heme, about 1 in 3.0 million residents.

What do you want to know about Heme?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

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

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, “Heme”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Heme parses inside a full name →