Nys

surname · Latin script

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

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

rarermore common
  • BEBelgium1 in 2.5K(measured from records)
  • FRFrance≈1 in 70K
  • USUnited States1 in 1.2M

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.

Belgium (measured from records)

4,691 people, 2008

Sources
178 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 2.5K (inferred from the name graph)

Belgium

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

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)

Nys 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 Nys is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BE Belgium#1324,6911 in 2.5K4.7KNys89
FR France—≈970 est.≈1 in 70K130Nys178
US United States—2811 in 1.2M281Nys127
DE Germany—≈150 est.≈1 in 523K—Nys52
AU Australia—≈64 est.≈1 in 400K—Nys37
EE Estonia—≈16 est.≈1 in 78Klisted—1

4,691 people counted by Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register), 2008. 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: Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010. 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)

Nys is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Belgium, Brazil, United States, Argentina

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Ňys

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Nÿs

  • Indonesian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia

    Also written Ny'S

  • Vietnamese given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Vietnam

    Also written Ny'S

  • Czech surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Czechia

    Also written Nyš, Ņyš

  • Russian surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, Belgium, United States

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

    Also written Ныс

37 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)

Nys 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 ang, alternative form of nis (“is not”)

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

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Nyunga.

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

  • In English, Abbreviation of New York State.

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

  • In enm, alternative form of nyce

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

  • In Danish, recently, just now

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

  • In Swedish, nonsense

    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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

180018501900195020002050Franziska von Reitzenstein, b. 1834Ernest Nys, b. 1851Désiré Nys, b. 1859Jef Nys, b. 1927Colette Nys-Mazure, b. 1939Philippe Nys, b. 1947Leo Nys, b. 1949Patrick Nys, b. 1969Hugo Nys, b. 1991Thibau Nys, b. 2002

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).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 24 sources across 13 countries.

Official registers attesting Nys
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BE BelgiumFamilienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register)20084.7K#117
BE BelgiumStatbel — Noms de famille (family names)—4.2K#138
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010281#69,793
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020277#75,111
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000272#67,725
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1941178—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1951164—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1971143—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1991130—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1981125—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1961122—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1911116—

Reference works 5

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

In which country does Nys have the most bearers?
In Belgium, the national register counted about 4.7 thousand people named Nys, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nys.
Where is Nys most common?
Nys is densest in Belgium, where the national register counts about 1 in 2.5 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Nys?
In Belgium, the national register counted 4,691 people named Nys in 2008, about 1 in 2.5 thousand residents.
How common is Nys compared with other names?
In Belgium, Nys is the 132nd most common surname of 246,397 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Nys?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nys

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Nys” — the 132nd most common surname in Belgium. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Nys parses inside a full name →