Mo

loc · Latin script

Meaning: (i) Also Moe, ‘person from Mo or Moe’, a Norwegian place-name meaning ‘moor, heath’; (ii) also Moe, ‘person who lives on a sandy heath’; (iii) ‘person from Mo’, a legendary Chinese city

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

Mo is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Bangladesh than in any other country, where it is the 34th most common given name.

rarermore common
  • CNChina≈1 in 12K(inferred from the name graph)
  • BDBangladesh≈1 in 839as মো
  • OMOman≈1 in 1.4Kas মো

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 Mo 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.

Bangladesh (inferred from the name graph)

≈190,000 named মো, est.

3 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
243 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 2.3K (inferred from the name graph)

Egypt, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

MuLatin(measured from records)
МуCyrillic(measured from records)
ΜωGreek(measured from records)

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Mu in OM Oman, AE United Arab Emirates, SA Saudi Arabia and 1 more and মো in BD Bangladesh.

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)

(i) Also Moe, ‘person from Mo or Moe’, a Norwegian place-name meaning ‘moor, heath’; (ii) also Moe, ‘person who lives on a sandy heath’; (iii) ‘person from Mo’, a legendary Chinese city.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 28 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Mo 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 Mo is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BD Bangladesh#34≈190,000 est.≈1 in 839—মো55
CN China—≈110,000 est.≈1 in 12K—Mo127
EG Egypt—≈45,000 est.≈1 in 2.3K—Mu27
US United States—16,450as Ma1 in 20K38KMo243
SA Saudi Arabia—≈14,000 est.≈1 in 2.5K—Mu34
OM Oman—≈3,300 est.≈1 in 1.4K—Mu6
AE United Arab Emirates—≈2,600 est.≈1 in 3.8K—Mu27
SE Sweden—2081 in 49K542—12

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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). 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)

Mo is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname42 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom

    Languages: English, German, Luxembourgish

    Also written Moe, Mö, Mo', M-O, Mô

  • a separate name12 spellings in the group

    Also written Mǭ, Mō, Mó, M-O, Mò̂

  • Arabic given name60 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, United Arab Emirates

    Languages: Arabic, Hebrew

    Also written Mô, Mõ, Mö, Mő, Mó

  • Korean surname13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in South Korea, United States, China, Netherlands

    Also written 모, Mao, Mho, Mơ, Mŏ

  • French given name14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Algeria, Morocco

    Also written Mô, Mö, Mo', M-O, Mõ

  • Japanese given name6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Japan

    Also written Mơ, Mỡ, Mô, M-O, Mö

  • Swahili surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Tanzania, Peru, Kenya

    Also written M'O, Mơ

  • Norwegian name36 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Norway, Sweden

    Languages: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish

    Also written Mö, Mô, Mơ, Mỡ, Mộ

63 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)

Mo 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 English, Abbreviation of Missouri: a state of the United States.

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

  • Distinguish.

    as a nameThe African book of names

  • In men, st. moi, plu. béla, beleisia, ™., person. Chiefly used as a personal suffix, forming nouns of verbs denoting personal agents; as, ka, to teach ; ka-mo, teacher, plu. ka- béla. To pdma-mo, fol- lower; plu. woma belésia

    as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language

  • In Akan, v, F. to be bad. Mt. 6,23. 12,34. s. muo. amo [pure full o] F. am bo, congratulation, felicitation; ma a., to congrattdatc, felicitate, hail, praise, acknowledge, to wish joy, good speedy or success; mema no amo, I bid him good speed (God speed); woma no amomomo, they hail him. pr. 242, 729. — Cf. m6

    as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

  • In Khmer, pt, come (on), le t’s (informal), (in (probably related to 'to come.’ ) Ex.: marine § ClTiCU?nCfUft ! L e t ’s go swimming! monster Hn Come over here to play! ‘mythical HH

    as a wordHeadley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume II (ម-អ)

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)

0500100015002000Mo Di, b. 470Mao Zedong, b. 1893Mao Anying, b. 1922Mo Ibrahim, b. 1946Mo Brooks, b. 1954Mo Yan, b. 1955Mo Johnston, b. 1963Karen Mok, b. 1970Maurice Williams, b. 1982Mo Farah, b. 1983
  • Mo Dib. 4705th-century BC Chinese philosopher and founder of Mohism
  • Mao Zedongb. 1893CNnot in their usual name1st chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and founder of the People's Republic of China (1893–1976)
  • Mao Anyingb. 1922CNnot in their usual nameChinese soldier, son of Chairman Mao Zedong of China (1922-1950)
  • Mo Ibrahimb. 1946GBSudanese-British businessman
  • Mo Brooksb. 1954USAmerican politician (born 1954)
  • Mo Yanb. 1955CNChinese novelist and screenwriter
  • Mo Johnstonb. 1963GBScottish footballer and manager
  • Karen Mokb. 1970CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actress and singer-songwriter
  • Maurice Williamsb. 1982USnot in their usual nameAmerican professional basketball player and coach
  • Mo Farahb. 1983GBBritish track and field athlete

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 66 sources across 35 countries.

Official registers attesting Mo
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.9K#5,147
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.5K#5,147
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—208#5,101
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)202030—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20167—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20236—

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary

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 Mo mean, and where does it come from?
(i) Also Moe, ‘person from Mo or Moe’, a Norwegian place-name meaning ‘moor, heath’; (ii) also Moe, ‘person who lives on a sandy heath’; (iii) ‘person from Mo’, a legendary Chinese city. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
In which country does Mo have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 194 thousand people named মো in Bangladesh, more than in any other country we hold.
How common is the name Mo?
In Sweden, the national register counted 208 people named Mo, about 1 in 49 thousand residents.
How common is Mo compared with other names?
In Bangladesh, Mo is the 34th most common given name of 29,323 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Mo?

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

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, “Mo” — the 34th most common given name in Bangladesh. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Mo parses inside a full name →