Niang

surname · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

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

Niang is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Senegal than in any other country, where it is the 11th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • SNSenegal≈1 in 70(inferred from the name graph)
  • FRFrance≈1 in 15K
  • MRMauritania≈1 in 4.9K

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.

Senegal (inferred from the name graph)

≈220,000 people, est.

Sources
237 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 70 (inferred from the name graph)

Senegal, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Niang 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 Niang is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
SN Senegal#11≈220,000 est.≈1 in 70152Niang71
FR France—≈4,600 est.≈1 in 15K474Niang237
ES Spain—3,2521 in 15K3.3KNiang51
IT Italy—≈3,100 est.≈1 in 20K—Niang43
GN Guinea—≈1,800 est.≈1 in 7.1Klisted—5
ML Mali—≈1,400 est.≈1 in 14K2—17
MR Mauritania#32≈820 est.≈1 in 4.9K—Niang13

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); DGE — candidate declarations, 41 party/coalition lists (legislatives anticipees 17 Nov 2024); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names; the gn-sylla-patronymes 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)

Niang is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Senegal, Malaysia, Germany

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Nïãng, Nïäng

58 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)

Niang is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In cdo, to hold up or demand, a high price, to stand on one’s dignity, arrogant

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of niáng

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

  • In cdo, to lay hold of one’s fault

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • In cdo, seized, caught

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • In wuu, Mistress

    as a wordA Vocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect

  • In wuu, Mother

    as a wordA Vocabulary of the Shanghai 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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

192019401960198020002020Isseu Niang, b. 1939Philippe Niang, b. 1951Hamane Niang, b. 1952Tété, b. 1975Mamadou Niang, b. 1979Assmaa Niang, b. 1983Mame Niang, b. 1984Georges Niang, b. 1993Ousseynou Niang, b. 2001Saliou Niang, b. 2004

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)

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

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 42 sources across 27 countries.

Reference works 3

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

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

How do you pronounce Niang?
A machine transcription gives /ɲɑ̃/ (IPA) for French.
In which country does Niang have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 223 thousand people named Niang in Senegal, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled niang.
How common is the name Niang?
In Spain, the national register counted 3,252 people named Niang, about 1 in 15 thousand residents.
How common is Niang compared with other names?
In Senegal, Niang is the 11th most common surname of 3,622 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Niang?

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

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, “Niang” — the 11th most common surname in Senegal. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Niang parses inside a full name →