Molotov
surname · Latin script
Meaning: mer’ (from molot to grind), referring to a fierce fighter (cf
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈmɔɫəˌtɑf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Molotov is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Russia than in any other country.
- RURussia≈1 in 109Kas Молотов(inferred from the name graph)
- UAUkraine≈1 in 271Kas Молотов
- EEEstonia≈1 in 234K
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 Molotov 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.
- Russia (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 116 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 234K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,300 named Молотов, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Estonia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Молотов in RU Russia, UA Ukraine, KZ Kazakhstan and 1 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)
mer’ (from molot to grind), referring to a fierce fighter (cf. Malet 4 and Martel 2) or to someone who used such an implement in his work. Dim.: Russ.: Molotkov.
Sources 1
- The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Molotov 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RU Russia | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 109K | — | Молотов | 116 |
| UA Ukraine | ≈160 est. | ≈1 in 271K | — | Молотов | 18 |
| DZ Algeria | ≈160 est. | ≈1 in 271K | — | Molotov | 2 |
| KZ Kazakhstan | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 165K | — | Молотов | 29 |
| BY Belarus | ≈62 est. | ≈1 in 152K | — | Молотов | 5 |
| PL Poland | 14 | 1 in 2.7M | 14 | — | — |
| MN Mongolia | ≈14 est. | ≈1 in 222K | listed | — | — |
| EE Estonia | ≈5 est. | ≈1 in 234K | 10 | Molotov | 4 |
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: dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames); Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed). 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)
Molotov 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, A transliteration of the Russian surname Молотов (Molotov)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Finnish, A romanisation of the Russian surname famously held by
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Spanish, synonym of cóctel molotov
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Italian, Molotov cocktail
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Croatian, sovjetski političar, bliski Staljinov suradnik; predsjednik vlade SSSR-a 1930—1941, ministar vanjskih poslova 1939—1949. i 1953—1956.
as a wordHrvatski jezični portal (HJP) dictionary export
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)
- Vyacheslav Molotovb. 1890RUSoviet politician, statesman and diplomat (1890–1986)
- Valentin Molotovb. 1990ice dancer
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 7 sources across 5 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 14 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 14 | #111,604 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 10 | #10,572 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 5 | #16,429 |
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Molotov come from?
- mer’ (from molot to grind), referring to a fierce fighter (cf. Malet 4 and Martel 2) or to someone who used such an implement in his work. Dim.: Russ.: Molotkov. Recorded by The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles.
- How do you pronounce Molotov?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈmɔɫəˌtɑf/ (IPA) for Russian.
- What does the name Molotov mean?
- Recorded meaning: mer’ (from molot to grind), referring to a fierce fighter (cf.
- In which country does Molotov have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.3 thousand people named Молотов in Russia, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Molotov?
- In Poland, the national register counted 14 people named Molotov in 2026, about 1 in 2.7 million residents.
What do you want to know about Molotov?
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/molotovThe 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, “Molotov”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.