Bex

surname · Latin script

(measured from records)Officially recorded in 13 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024

/bɛks/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Bex is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Belgium than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Main GB Location (1881): Surrey and Kent; also. locative name from Bax in Tonge (Kent), which is recorded as Byx in 1341, Bex in 1782.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 840K(measured from records)
  • BEBelgium1 in 8.2K
  • NLNetherlands1 in 48K

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.

Belgium (measured from records)

1,436 people, 2008

Record sources
143 (measured from records)

corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling

strongest: highest-authority source

1 in 8.2K (inferred from the name graph)

Belgium

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin

(measured from records)

Main GB Location (1881): Surrey and Kent; also. locative name from Bax in Tonge (Kent), which is recorded as Byx in 1341, Bex in 1782.

Cited for this meaning 1

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Where in the world

(measured from records)

Bex 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.

Where Bex is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BE Belgium—1,4361 in 8.2K1.4KBex45
FR France—≈500 est.≈1 in 135K56—2
US United States—3961 in 840K413Bex143
NL Netherlands—3571 in 48K357Bex31
DE Germany—≈200 est.≈1 in 409K—Bex49
GB United Kingdom—≈190 est.≈1 in 339K—Bex143
CH Switzerland—401 in 210K40Bex5
HM Heard & McDonald Islands#257———Bex1

1,436 people counted by Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register), 2008. 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; Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). 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 names spelled this way

(inferred from the name graph)

Bex is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Belgium, United States, Netherlands

    Also written Be'X, Bé'X

  • Spanish surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, United States, Brazil, Spain

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Bê'X, Be'X, Bé'X

  • Vietnamese given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Vietnam, United States

    Also written Bé'X

46 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

(measured from records)

Bex 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 dra-nor-pro, to choke

    as a wordStarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)

  • In jam, vexed, angry

    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)
190019502000Adolf Bex, b. 1907Florent Bex, b. 1937Jos Bex, b. 1946Emmanuel Bex, b. 1959Christophe Bex, b. 1961Stijn Bex, b. 1976Shannon Bex, b. 1980Fabienne Bex, b. 1980Nathalie Bex, b. 1998

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)
FormalDear Colleague,
InformalHello,

Evidence

(measured from records)

24 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 13 countries.

Official registers attesting Bex
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BE BelgiumFamilienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register)20081.4K#821
BE BelgiumStatbel — Noms de famille (family names)—1.3K#882
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020413#53,969
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010396#52,383
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000360#53,782
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)2007357#5,673
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)192194—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)196188—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)195188—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)194185—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)197180—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)190176—

Reference works 4

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

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 Bex mean, and where does it come from?
Main GB Location (1881): Surrey and Kent; also. locative name from Bax in Tonge (Kent), which is recorded as Byx in 1341, Bex in 1782. Recorded by The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland.
How do you pronounce Bex?
A machine transcription gives /bɛks/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Bex have the most bearers?
In Belgium, the national register counted about 1.4 thousand people named Bex, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled bex.
Where is Bex most common?
Bex is densest in Belgium, where the national register counts about 1 in 8.2 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Bex?
In Belgium, the national register counted 1,436 people named Bex in 2008, about 1 in 8.2 thousand residents.
How common is Bex compared with other names?
In Heard & McDonald Islands, Bex is the 257th most common surname of 1,376 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Bex?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/bex

The 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, “Bex” — the 257th most common surname in Heard & McDonald Islands. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.

See how Bex parses inside a full name →