Choy
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A surname from Korean or Cantonese
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈtʃɔɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Choy is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 874(inferred from the name graph)
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 3.3K
- SGSingapore≈1 in 4.8K
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
- 327 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 874 (inferred from the name graph)
≈40,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Hong Kong, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A surname from Korean or Cantonese.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Choy is read(measured from records)
Choy is one spelling over 3 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.
- English63%
A surname from Korean or Cantonese.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish13%
a surname from Cantonese
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Malay10%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Choy in Malay.
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Choy 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 | — | ≈40,000 est. | ≈1 in 35K | — | Choy | 30 |
| MY Malaysia | #363 | ≈10,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.3K | — | Choy | 89 |
| HK Hong Kong | #146 | ≈8,300 est. | ≈1 in 874 | — | Choy | 110 |
| US United States | — | 5,254 | 1 in 63K | 5.3K | Choy | 327 |
| PE Peru | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 21K | — | Choy | 37 |
| SG Singapore | #380 | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 4.8K | — | Choy | 119 |
| GY Guyana | — | 32 | 1 in 23K | 32 | — | 3 |
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; Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. 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)
Choy 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 Cebuano, buddy; an informal or friendly address to a stranger, usually male.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In enm, alternative form of sche
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(measured from records)
- Cai Lunb. 48CNnot in their usual nameChinese official credited with inventing paper (died 121)
- Choi Hong-hib. 1918KPnot in their usual nameKorean army general and martial artist (1918–2002)
- Choi Kyu-hahb. 1919KRnot in their usual name4th President of South Korea (1919–2006)
- Choe Ryong-haeb. 1950KPnot in their usual nameChairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea
- Tsai Ing-wenb. 1956TWnot in their usual name14th and 15th President of Republic of China (Taiwan)
- Choi Min-sikb. 1962KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actor
- Kenneth Choib. 1971USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Jolin Tsaib. 1980TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese singer, songwriter, and actress (born 1980)
- Choi Min-hob. 1991KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean rapper, singer and actor
- Albert Tsaib. 2004USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 2004)
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 39 sources across 26 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 182 | #26,339 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 172 | #26,339 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 1 | #593 |
Reference works 4
- 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 Choy mean, and where does it come from?
- A surname from Korean or Cantonese. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Choy?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈtʃɔɪ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Choy have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 40 thousand people named Choy in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled choy.
- How common is the name Choy?
- In the United States, the national register counted 5,254 people named Choy in 2010, about 1 in 63 thousand residents.
- How common is Choy compared with other names?
- In Hong Kong, Choy is the 146th most common surname of 8,142 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Choy?
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/choyThe 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, “Choy” — the 146th most common surname in Hong Kong. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.