Tu
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Vietnamese: to isolate oneself from other people to follow rules in a philosophy or religion
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/tu˨˨/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Tu is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Vietnam than in any other country, where it is the 37th most common given name.
- VNVietnam≈1 in 312(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 51K
- CNChina≈1 in 22K
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.
- Vietnam (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 188 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 312 (inferred from the name graph)
≈320,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Vietnam, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
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)
to isolate oneself from other people to follow rules in a philosophy or religion
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
How Tu is read(measured from records)
Tu is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Vietnamese74%
to isolate oneself from other people to follow rules in a philosophy or religion
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Han-Viet name element; from the naming poem for Thường Tín quận vương, Gia Long’s 11th son.
as a nameTên Họ Người Việt Nam
- English12%
Pronunciation spelling of to, representing African-American Vernacular English.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Tu 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VN Vietnam | #37 | ≈320,000 est. | ≈1 in 312 | listed | Tu | 188 |
| CN China | — | ≈63,000 est. | ≈1 in 22K | — | Tu | 28 |
| US United States | — | 6,480 | 1 in 51K | 11K | Tu | 167 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈3,800 est. | ≈1 in 69K | — | Tu | 65 |
| PK Pakistan | — | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 234K | — | Tu | 12 |
| SE Sweden | — | 311 | 1 in 33K | 311 | Tu | 17 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈170 est. | ≈1 in 37K | — | Tu | 19 |
| IS Iceland | — | 8 | 1 in 44K | 8 | — | — |
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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). 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)
Tu is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In cdo, gouge, to cut or scoop out to come, to arrive, to reach (3! is also used for colloquial). has he yet come or not? to come early, (ciéu-dék-li). to come late, (cé-ma-li). come and see, (a-cd-dék-H). to come and yo, (udng-lai). the common Chinese pear, Pyrus
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In Akan, adv. completely dark; ade saa so tu, whilst this was going on, it grew full night (it continued or was deferred to the dark of night). attf , clasp, embrace; ye atQ, to embrace; woyeat., they embraee each other; meye no at., / e^nbrace him; cf, bam, fam
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In cdo, ginger ― too poor to Iniy pavory food ； tok、 sioh^ chiAh, to light one, as u mutch or lamp ； sek"ok、 a soldei itig-irou. jrt Any thing that juts *1 above the surface, as a Tieli a "tenon ； convex, proHi- berant ； used for the coll. (《X q. V.
as a wordAn Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in 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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Yang Xiub. 175CNnot in their usual nameOfficial and adviser serving warlord Cao Cao (175-219)
- Ouyang Xiub. 1007CNnot in their usual nameChinese poet, historian and statesman (1007–1072)
- Du Yumingb. 1904CNnot in their usual nameChinese lieutenant general (1904–1981)
- Ma Shitub. 1915CNnot in their usual nameChinese writer and politician
- Du Jingjiannot in their usual nameChinese chancellor
- Henghsiu TsaiUSnot in their usual namePh.D. University of Iowa 1998
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)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 53 sources across 28 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 11K | #3,298 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 9.2K | #3,835 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 6.8K | #4,745 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- 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
- What does the name Tu mean, and where does it come from?
- to isolate oneself from other people to follow rules in a philosophy or religion Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Tu?
- A machine transcription gives /tu˨˨/ (IPA) for Vietnamese.
- Is Tu a male or female name?
- Tu is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- In which country does Tu have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 316 thousand people named Tu in Vietnam, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled tu.
- How common is the name Tu?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,480 people named Tu in 2020, about 1 in 51 thousand residents.
- How common is Tu compared with other names?
- In Vietnam, Tu is the 37th most common given name of 73,918 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Tu?
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/tuThe 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, “Tu” — the 37th most common given name in Vietnam. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.