Unu
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Initialism of United Nations University
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/unu/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Unu is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 153K(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 475K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 3.4M
carrying the name, as Mondonomo estimates it from our sources: no national register counts it in these countries. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 31 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 153K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,400 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Nigeria, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Initialism of United Nations University.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 25 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Unu 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 153K | — | Unu | 20 |
| IN India | ≈110 est. | ≈1 in 12M | 1 | Unu | 10 |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈10 est. | ≈1 in 475K | — | Unu | 12 |
| US United States | ≈9 est. | ≈1 in 35M | — | Unu | 31 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈9 est. | ≈1 in 7.7M | — | Unu | 21 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈8 est. | ≈1 in 4.3M | — | Unu | 5 |
| AU Australia | ≈7 est. | ≈1 in 3.4M | — | Unu | 11 |
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: naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls). 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)
Unu 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 rap, drink
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In kwd, native torch; to light, illuminate; divine a thief using a magical torch, _unu-a_ cook vegetables (or edible insects) by steaming in a leaf-plugged bamboo tube on an open fire
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Tongan, to slough, shed its skin (as snakes do), or its shell (as crabs, etc. do); skin or shell which has been shed, slough
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
Systematic chemical symbol for unnilunium, now named mendelevium.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In apb, fibrous spathe of a coconut frond, used for straining
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
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.
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 7 sources across 5 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 4 | #7,657 |
Reference works 1
- 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 Unu mean, and where does it come from?
- Initialism of United Nations University. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Unu?
- A machine transcription gives /unu/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Unu have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.4 thousand people named Unu in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled unu.
- How common is the name Unu?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1,400 people in Nigeria have Unu as their first surname, about 1 in 153 thousand residents. No national register counts it there; the figure is ours, calibrated against the registers that do.
What do you want to know about Unu?
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/unuThe 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, “Unu”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.