Hiu

given name · Chinese · Latin script

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

Hiu is a given name, most frequently recorded in Taiwan. In Hong Kong it is the 49th most common given name. It appears chiefly in Chinese and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: From Malay hiu (Standard yu), from Proto-Malayic *hiu, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *hiu, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *hiu, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qihu, from Proto-Austronesian *qiSu.

rarermore common
  • HKHong Kong1 in 1.1K
  • TWTaiwan1 in 15K
  • USUnited States1 in 1.8M

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈270

across 5 countries

Sources
134

5.5K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 175K

Iceland

Meaning & origin

Derivation of Hiu: each step is the form the one above it came from.
Hiu
  1. MalayhiuStandard yu
  2. Proto-Malayic*hiu
  3. Proto-Malayo-Chamic*hiu
  4. Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan*hiu
  5. Proto-Austronesian*qiSu

From Malay hiu (Standard yu), from Proto-Malayic *hiu, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *hiu, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *hiu, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qihu, from Proto-Austronesian *qiSu.

Sources 1

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Where in the world

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Hiu is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
TW Taiwan6,56220 rec.Hiu31
HK Hong Kong#493,4792.1K rec.Hiu83
GB United Kingdom826585 rec.listedHiu52
CN China334192 rec.Hiu42
US United States1872.2K rec.1 in 1.8M237Hiu134
IN India13071 rec.2Hiu6
CA Canada128124 rec.5Hiu43
MY Malaysia750 rec.Hiu13
NL Netherlands5364 rec.1 in 326K53Hiu13
SG Singapore4633 rec.Hiu16
NZ New Zealand3023 rec.Hiu7
SE Sweden231 rec.1 in 444K232

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages

  • Chinese14K55%
  • English5.5K22%
  • Vietnamese1.2K5%
  • Indonesian8734%
  • 7053%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Chinese13,51055%
English5,48022%
Vietnamese1,1885%
Indonesian8734%
7053%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way

Hiu is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English given name9.8K records spelled Hiu9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Australia, Hong Kong, United Kingdom

    Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

    Also written Híu, Hỉu, Hịu, Hĩu

  • Spanish given name1.0K records spelled Hiu5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Brazil

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Híu, Hìu, Hiú

  • a separate given name398 records spelled Hiu6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Hong Kong, China

    Also written Hỉu, Hĩu, Hìu, Hịu, Híu

  • English given name197 records spelled Hiu152 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Australia

    Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

    Also written Hugh, Hugo, Hugues, Hughes, ฮัว

  • Japanese given name165 records spelled Hiu3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Japan, Hong Kong, China

    Also written Hìu, Hịu

42 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

Hiu 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 Akan, interj. an expression of fear or astonishment. Gr. § 145

    as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

  • In Sundanese, shark

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

  • In zlm, shark; dogfish; generic for sharks, dogfish, hammerhead sharks, sawfish and beaked rays

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

  • In Hawaiian, to throw or fling violently, haul energetically with ropes

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

  • In Indonesian, shark (scaleless cartilaginous fish)

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

  • In Sundanese, generic name for all sharklike fish

    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.

Notable people with this name

19201940196019802000Lin Xiao, b. 1920Jiang Xiaoyuan, b. 1955Yang Xiao, b. 1964Wang Xiao, b. 1968Zhang Xiaolong, b. 1975Li Xiaolu, b. 1982Chen Xiao, b. 1987Chen Xiao, b. 1989Sun Xiao, b. 1992Cui Xiaotong, b. 1994
  • Lin Xiaob. 1920CNnot in their usual nameChinese politician
  • Jiang Xiaoyuanb. 1955CNnot in their usual nameChinese astronomy historian
  • Yang Xiaob. 1964CNnot in their usual nameChinese rower
  • Wang Xiaob. 1968CNnot in their usual nameChinese politician
  • Zhang Xiaolongb. 1975CNnot in their usual nameChinese actor
  • Li Xiaolub. 1982CNnot in their usual nameChinese actress
  • Chen Xiaob. 1987CNnot in their usual nameChinese television and film actor
  • Chen Xiaob. 1989CNnot in their usual nameChinese association football player
  • Sun Xiaob. 1992CNnot in their usual nameChinese field hockey player (1992-)
  • Cui Xiaotongb. 1994CNnot in their usual nameChinese rower

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

Attested in 25 sources across 15 countries.

Official registers attesting Hiu
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020237#85,054
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010226#83,226
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020187#29,961
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000170#98,770
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020106#29,961
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)60#7,535
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018)53#8,145
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)29#152,390
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)25#17,304
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)23#22,564
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)20#25,972
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names15#4,319

Reference works 2

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • 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 2026-09-12 data build · 79 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Hiu?
We estimate roughly 270 people bear Hiu (counting its spellings and scripts) across 5 countries in our records.
In which country does Hiu have the most bearers?
Hiu is most frequently recorded in Taiwan, where it is most often spelled hiu.
How common is Hiu compared with other names?
In Hong Kong, Hiu is the 49th most common given name of 19,389 given names recorded there.
Is Hiu a male or female name?
Hiu 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.
What does the name Hiu mean?
Recorded meaning: From Malay hiu (Standard yu), from Proto-Malayic *hiu, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *hiu, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *hiu, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qihu, from Proto-Austronesian *qiSu.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/hiu

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. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

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, “Hiu” — the 49th most common given name in Hong Kong. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Hiu parses inside a full name →