Kes
surname · Latin script
Meaning: second-person singular imperative of kesmek
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/kes/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kes is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 999K(measured from records)
- NLNetherlands1 in 38K
- HRCroatia1 in 384K
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 Kes 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.
- Netherlands (measured from records)
- Sources
- 152 (measured from records)
- 1 in 38K (inferred from the name graph)
451 people, 2007
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Keş in TR Türkiye.
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)
second-person singular imperative of kesmek
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kes 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | 451 | 1 in 38K | 451 | Kes | 28 |
| US United States | 333 | 1 in 999K | 338 | Kes | 152 |
| NG Nigeria | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 1.5M | — | Kes | 18 |
| FR France | ≈76 est. | ≈1 in 898K | 6 | — | 1 |
| TR Türkiye | ≈60 est. | ≈1 in 1.4M | — | Keş | 13 |
| CZ Czechia | 14 | 1 in 764K | 14 | — | — |
| HR Croatia | 11 | 1 in 384K | 13 | — | — |
451 people counted by CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007), 2007. 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 — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); MVČR — living population register 2017; DZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form); DZS — Učestalost prezimena (Popis 2021); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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)
Kes 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 Khmer, (= CfiHMlo) \ reputation. (5. k i r t i ‘speech, report; fame, renown.’) 2. n. heritage, an inheritance. Cnnffle heritage, inheritance; posthumous honor (T.J; glorious heritage (G.)
as a wordHeadley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume I (ក-ភ)
In Akan, t», adv. greatly, sirongh/, very much, in a high degree dc. !>!/n. 80, pi &c. — mframa hq k., the wind blows violently
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In Khmer, a story, (a piece of) gossip. SEITl[IJ Cfil to gossip about someone
as a wordHeadley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume I (ក-ភ)
In cdo, the hosom, (hitng-séng) ERS to receive. —
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In qfa-yen-pro, burbot
as a wordStarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)
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)
- Willem Kesb. 1856NLDutch conductor and composer (1856-1934)
- Dien Kesb. 1907NLDutch writer, 1907–1953
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 27 sources across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 451 | #4,346 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 338 | #63,720 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 333 | #60,505 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 272 | #67,725 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 14 | #67,601 |
| CZ Czechia | KdeJsme.cz — četnost jmen a příjmení (MVČR population register front-end) | — | 14 | #16,940 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- 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
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 Kes mean, and where does it come from?
- second-person singular imperative of kesmek Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Kes?
- A machine transcription gives /kes/ (IPA) for Turkish.
- In which country does Kes have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 451 people named Kes, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kes.
- Where is Kes most common?
- Kes is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 38 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Kes?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 451 people named Kes in 2007, about 1 in 38 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Kes?
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/kesThe 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, “Kes”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.