Zhai
surname · Latin script
Meaning: nonstandard spelling of zhāi
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/shaɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Zhai is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- CNChina≈1 in 5.1K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 54K
- USUnited States1 in 413K
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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 191 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 5.1K (inferred from the name graph)
≈270,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
nonstandard spelling of zhāi
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Zhai 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | #957 | ≈270,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.1K | — | Zhai | 124 |
| US United States | — | 806 | 1 in 413K | 1.7K | Zhai | 191 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈480 est. | ≈1 in 54K | — | Zhai | 73 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈270 est. | ≈1 in 137K | — | Zhai | 87 |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈260 est. | ≈1 in 125K | — | Zhai | 16 |
| HK Hong Kong | #874 | ≈250 est. | ≈1 in 29K | — | Zhai | 24 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈130 est. | ≈1 in 50K | — | Zhai | 25 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | ≈61 est. | ≈1 in 80K | — | Zhai | 19 |
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 — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020. 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)
Zhai is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In och, to inhabit, reside, dwell, settle, residence; homestead, farmstead
as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)
In och, to suffer, hurt
as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)
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)
- Zhai Zhaob. 350Chinese emperor
- Zhai Liaob. 350Wei emperor
- Zhai Xiangjunb. 1939CNChinese translator and educator
- Zhai Zhigangb. 1966CNChinese astronaut
- Zhai Chaob. 1971CNChinese handball player
- Zhai Yanpengb. 1982CNChinese footballer
- William Chakb. 1985CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor
- Zhai Tianlinb. 1987CNChinese actor
- Zhai Xiaochuanb. 1993CNChinese basketball player (born 1993)
- Zhai FangjinWestern Han Dynasty person CBDB = 13319
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 22 sources across 13 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.7K | #16,180 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 806 | #29,334 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 356 | #54,269 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
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
- What does the name Zhai mean, and where does it come from?
- nonstandard spelling of zhāi Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Zhai?
- A machine transcription gives /shaɪ/ (IPA) for Chinese.
- In which country does Zhai have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 275 thousand people named Zhai in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled zhai.
- How common is the name Zhai?
- In the United States, the national register counted 806 people named Zhai in 2010, about 1 in 413 thousand residents.
- How common is Zhai compared with other names?
- In China, Zhai is the 957th most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Zhai?
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/zhaiThe 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, “Zhai” — the 957th most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.