Ras

loc · Latin script

Meaning: uncertain stem noted by the author; later rejected as explanatory stem

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

Ras is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Belgium than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • AEUnited Arab Emirates≈1 in 62K(inferred from the name graph)
  • FRFrance≈1 in 88K
  • BEBelgium1 in 2.5Kas Raes

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 Ras 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.

Belgium (measured from records)

4,640 named Raes, 2008

Sources
178 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 6.5K (inferred from the name graph)

Netherlands

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Raes in BE Belgium, NL Netherlands, FR France and 1 more.

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)

uncertain stem noted by the author; later rejected as explanatory stem

Sources 1

  • Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Ras 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 Ras is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BE Belgium#1614,640as Raes1 in 2.5K4.6KRaes89
NL Netherlands—2,6391 in 6.5K2.6KRaes63
PL Poland—2,2031 in 17K1.1K—2
PH Philippines—≈1,700 est.≈1 in 66K—Raes43
FR France—≈770 est.≈1 in 88K72Raes150
AE United Arab Emirates—≈160 est.≈1 in 62K—Ras18
QA Qatar—≈42 est.≈1 in 59K—Ras13

4,640 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: 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); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (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)

Ras is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Hindi name9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Pakistan

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Raś, Räs, Rãs, Rás, ́ras

  • a separate name6 spellings in the group

    Also written Raš, Rās, Raś, Rás, Räs

  • English surname182 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Thailand, Netherlands, United Kingdom

    Languages: English, Thai, Dutch

    Also written Rae, Ra, Raee, แร, แร่

  • Czech surname14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Czechia

    Also written Raš, Ráš, Řäš, Řas, Raś

  • Spanish name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Spain, Mexico

    Also written Ra'S, Rä'S

  • Malay name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia

    Languages: Malay, Indonesian

    Also written Rås, Räs

  • Portuguese name8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil

    Also written Ràs, Räs, Řăś, Raş, Raś

54 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)

Ras 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.

  • —žr. Zakaras

    as a nameLietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames)

  • Head.

    as a nameThe African book of names

  • In Dutch, race, breed

    as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of Dutch

  • In Russian, var of Rash.

    as a wordA Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)

  • In Swedish, a race (a large group of individuals of the same species set apart from others on the basis of a common heritage), a breed

    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)

18501900195020002050Matilde Ras, b. 1881Max Ras, b. 1889Hans Ras, b. 1926Tjabel Ras, b. 1935Eva Ras, b. 1941Mervin Wyatt-Ras, b. 1961Pim Ras, b. 1966Maxime Ras, b. 1988Julian Ras, b. 2001
  • Matilde Rasb. 1881ESSpanish writer
  • Max Rasb. 1889CHSwiss journalist and publisher (1889-1966)
  • Hans Rasb. 1926NLDutch linguist *1926 (1926–2003)
  • Tjabel Rasb. 1935NLDutch sportsperson and athletics competitor
  • Eva Rasb. 1941RSSerbian actress, writer and painter
  • Mervin Wyatt-Rasb. 1961NLDutch politician, first woman President of the Parliament of Aruba
  • Pim Rasb. 1966NLDutch photographer (born 1966)
  • Maxime Rasb. 1988FRfootballer
  • Julian Rasb. 2001NLDutch actor
  • Tijn RasNLDutch actor

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 43 sources across 24 countries.

Official registers attesting Ras
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)20072.6K#425
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1951110—
BE BelgiumFamilienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register)200894#16,310
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)197191—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)196187—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)198178—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)194175—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)192175—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)193174—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)199169—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)191141—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)190138—

Reference works 5

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 Ras mean, and where does it come from?
uncertain stem noted by the author; later rejected as explanatory stem Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
In which country does Ras have the most bearers?
In Belgium, the national register counted about 4.6 thousand people named Raes, more than in any other country we hold.
Where is Ras most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ras is densest in the Netherlands — about 1 in 6.5 thousand people — even though Belgium holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Ras?
In the Netherlands, the national register counted 2,639 people named Ras in 2007, about 1 in 6.5 thousand residents.
How common is Ras compared with other names?
In Belgium, Ras is the 161st most common surname of 246,397 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Ras?

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

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, “Ras” — the 161st most common surname in Belgium. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Ras parses inside a full name →