Both

surname · Latin script

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

Both is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In English, recorded as Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.

rarermore common
  • NLNetherlands1 in 9K(measured from records)
  • DEGermany≈1 in 18K
  • USUnited States1 in 385K

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)

≈5,600 people, est.

Sources
198 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 9.0K (inferred from the name graph)

Netherlands

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

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)

Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

How Both is read(measured from records)

Both 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.

  • English34%

    Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.

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

    venjo and vengo

    as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language

  • German24%

    Patronym aus Kurzformen zu Rufnamen mit ahd./as. boto/bodo 'Bote'; konkurrierend Berufsname zu mhd. bote 'Bote', auch indirekt zu mnd. bōt 'Boot'. 1914 Belege.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

    Patronymischer Familienname zu Rufname Bodo; Belege: 1914.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

    patronymisch zu Rufname Bodo/Botho; vgl. Boot(h) und Böth.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

  • Portuguese19%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Both in Portuguese.

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)

Both 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 Both is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China≈5,600 est.≈1 in 251K—Both3
DE Germany≈4,300 est.≈1 in 18K—Both124
BR Brazil3,0711 in 69K3.1K—3
NL Netherlands1,9181 in 9K1.9KBoth62
US United States8631 in 385K885Both198
RO Romania≈690 est.≈1 in 31K—Both12
CH Switzerland1531 in 55K153Both25
NA Namibia≈61 est.≈1 in 43K1—4

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; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); ECN Government Gazette 8791 — 2025 local authority candidates. 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)

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

  • Portuguese surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Paraguay, Argentina

    Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

    Also written Böth

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Netherlands

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Böth

  • Slovak surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, United States

    Languages: Slovak, Polish, Czech

    Also written Bóth, Böth

  • Hungarian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, Romania, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Bóth

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Böth

  • Danish surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Denmark, United States, Netherlands, Norway

    Languages: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish

    Also written Böth

39 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)

Both is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In kr, tenses, — to be, to exist: see Gram. §§. 2(H) and 'J(>7. mbeld, or meld, n. a. the act of watching, waylaying, ambush

    as a wordKanuri-English Vocabulary (in African Native Literature)

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)

1400160018002000Pieter Both, b. 1568Andries Dirksz. Both, b. 1612Jan Both, b. 1618Armand Both, b. 1881Kuno-Hans von Both, b. 1884Kattina Both, b. 1905Edward Both, b. 1908Béla Both, b. 1910Jochen Both, b. 1954Sabine Both, b. 1970

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(measured from records)

Attested in 29 sources across 17 countries.

Official registers attesting Both
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—3.1K#3,347
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)20071.9K#677
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020885#28,625
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000875#26,267
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010863#27,818
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)2024153#7,832
NA NamibiaECN Government Gazette 8791 — 2025 local authority candidates20251#15
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

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 Both mean, and where does it come from?
Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
What are other forms of the name Both?
In the etymology graph, Bothe is a form of the same name in other languages.
In which country does Both have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 5.6 thousand people named Both in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled both.
Where is Both most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Both is densest in the Netherlands — about 1 in 9.0 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Both?
In Brazil, the national register counted 3,071 people named Both, about 1 in 69 thousand residents.

What do you want to know about Both?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/both

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; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Both”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Both parses inside a full name →