Zaw

given name · Burmese · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Zaw is a given name, most frequently recorded in Myanmar (Burma), where it is the 3rd most common given name. It appears chiefly in Burmese and Thai, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: From Burmese ဇော် (jau).

rarermore common
  • MMMyanmar (Burma)1 in 10◐
  • MYMalaysia1 in 6K
  • SGSingapore1 in 6.8K

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

≈731 ●

across 6 countries

#834 ●

of 16M given names

Sources
143 ●

21K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 351K ◐

Iceland

Meaning & origin●

From Burmese ဇော် (jau).

Sources 1

Where in the world●

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

Where Zaw is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
MM Myanmar (Burma)#33,133,8777.9K rec.—2.1MZaw109
MY Malaysia#44210,9002.7K rec.——Zaw32
TH Thailand—4,7502.6K rec.——Zaw91
SG Singapore#3591,5832.8K rec.——Zaw52
US United States—6923.8K rec.1 in 481K866Zaw143
ID Indonesia—378709 rec.——Zaw14
VN Vietnam—26011 rec.——Zaw18
GB United Kingdom—248328 rec.——Zaw41
IN India—6727 rec.——Zaw13
CN China—5920 rec.——Zaw11
RU Russia—3034 rec.——Zaw18
CL Chile—2943 rec.——Zaw2

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

Languages●

  • Burmese3.1M100%
  • Thai4.9K1%
  • English2.9K1%
  • Malay1.2K1%
  • Indonesian1.1K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Burmese3,146,254100%
Thai4,8881%
English2,8661%
Malay1,2451%
Indonesian1,1171%

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◐

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

  • English given name6.5K records spelled Zaw8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Zâw, Záw, Zẵw, Žåw, Žãw

  • Japanese given name733 records spelled Zaw2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore

    Also written Żaw

  • Bangla given name357 records spelled Zaw2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, Bangladesh

    Also written Záw

  • Korean given name203 records spelled Zaw10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, United States, South Korea

    Also written Sau, 사우, Xau, Sauh, Sầu

  • French given name198 records spelled Zaw2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Singapore

    Also written Źāŵ

  • Norwegian Bokmål given name186 records spelled Zaw6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Norway, Denmark

    Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish

    Also written Žåŵ

35 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●

Zaw 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 enm, alternative form of sowen (“to sow”)

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

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Mitla Zapotec.

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

  • In English, A surname from Burmese.

    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●

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 22 sources across 11 countries.

Official registers attesting Zaw
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
MM Myanmar (Burma)This page features the most common names in Myanmar, published on WorldNames.20232.1M#3
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020866#29,143
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020692#15,999
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010459#46,404
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000161#103,193
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—76#9,251
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—71#6,351
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—44#30,787
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—42#29,342
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—20#32,194
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202019#15,999
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—18#26,157

Reference works 3

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • 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 · 25 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Zaw?
We estimate roughly 731 people bear Zaw (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.
In which country does Zaw have the most bearers?
Zaw is most frequently recorded in Myanmar (Burma), where it is most often spelled zaw.
How common is Zaw compared with other names?
In Myanmar (Burma), Zaw is the 3rd most common given name of 9,034 given names recorded there.
Is Zaw a male or female name?
Zaw is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Zaw mean?
Recorded meaning: From Burmese ဇော် (jau).
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/zaw

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, “Zaw” — the 3rd most common given name in Myanmar (Burma). Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Zaw parses inside a full name →