Bae
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Initialism of British Aerospace
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/beɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Bae is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in South Korea than in any other country, where it is the 25th most common surname.
- USUnited States1 in 54K(measured from records)
- KRSouth Korea1 in 129as 배
- KPNorth Korea≈1 in 1.1K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Bae itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- South Korea (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 261 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.1K (inferred from the name graph)
400,669 named 배, 2015
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
North Korea, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled 배 in KR South Korea, MO Macao.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Initialism of British Aerospace.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Bae, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Bae 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KR South Korea | #25 | 400,669as 배 | 1 in 129 | 401K | 배 | 189 |
| KP North Korea | #138 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | 3 | Bae | 29 |
| US United States | — | 6,203 | 1 in 54K | 6.8K | Bae | 261 |
| CN China | — | ≈6,100 est. | ≈1 in 228K | — | Bae | 24 |
| IN India | — | ≈4,700 est. | ≈1 in 280K | 75 | Bae | 18 |
| MO Macao | #71 | ≈660 est. | ≈1 in 926 | — | 배 | 2 |
| NO Norway | — | 338 | 1 in 16K | 338 | — | 5 |
| VU Vanuatu | — | ≈51 est. | ≈1 in 5.8K | 1 | — | — |
400,669 people counted by KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants, 2015. 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: KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); the in-instate-surnames-bystate register; Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names; Vanuatu Electoral Office — 2020 General Election consolidated candidate list. 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)
Bae 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 Khmer, to turn something; to turn around. CUJ9& to turn one’s back. CUIOn to change one’s feeling (toward), to change one’s mind. fur turn to turn away, to move away. fUTiJl instead (of), in place (of)^ but. Cuifun to break up
as a wordHeadley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume I (ក-ភ)
In cdo, the lotus flower, a poetical name to be joyful, to please, faithful. Be ex a kind of jackal. A {8 = x courageous; martial. rr the tench, a fish with dark green
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In Akan, Baebae, Baebac-antwa, surnames of the Asan- tcs, as a host of endless coming, or, extending so far that they cannot be surrounded. *^
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In Akan, bae, red, v. 1. s, bae; dua no ab., the tree has spread; 2, anim baebae, the day breaks; s, buebue
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In cdo, the accusation placed on the back of criminals, an escort of taxes or prisoners
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
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)
- Bae Chang-hob. 1953KRSouth Korean director, screenwriter, actor
- Bae Jong-okb. 1964KRSouth Korean actress
- Bae Yong-joonb. 1972KRSouth Korean actor and businessman
- Bae Seong-woob. 1972KRSouth Korean actor
- Bae Doonab. 1979KRSouth Korean actress
- Bae Seul-kib. 1986KRSouth Korean singer
- Bae Geu-rinb. 1989KRSouth Korean actress
- Ireneb. 1991KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean singer and actress
- Bae Suzyb. 1994KRSouth Korean singer and actress (born 1994)
- Chae Soo-binb. 1994KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
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 36 sources across 22 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 6.8K | #4,983 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 6.2K | #5,606 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 4K | #7,590 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 338 | #4,419 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 75 | #603 |
| KP North Korea | Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names | — | 3 | #43 |
| VU Vanuatu | Vanuatu Electoral Office — 2020 General Election consolidated candidate list | 2020 | 1 | #4 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- 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 Bae mean, and where does it come from?
- Initialism of British Aerospace. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Bae?
- A machine transcription gives /beɪ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Bae have the most bearers?
- In South Korea, the national register counted about 401 thousand people named 배, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Bae?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,203 people named Bae in 2010, about 1 in 54 thousand residents.
- How common is Bae compared with other names?
- In South Korea, Bae is the 25th most common surname of 14,133 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Bae?
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/baeThe 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, “Bae” — the 25th most common surname in South Korea. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.