Tek
loc · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Tek is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Malaysia than in any other country. Recorded meaning: From Ottoman Turkish تك (tek, “unique; alone”), from Proto-Turkic *tēk.
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 2Kas Teck(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 3.2Kas Teck
- SASaudi Arabia≈1 in 67K
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 Tek 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.
- Malaysia (inferred from the name graph)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 129 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 67K (inferred from the name graph)
≈17,000 named Teck, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Saudi Arabia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Teck in MY Malaysia, SG Singapore, ID Indonesia and 1 more and Teik in US United States.
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)
- Ottoman Turkishتكtek“unique; alone”(measured from records)
- Proto-Turkic*tēk(measured from records)
From Ottoman Turkish تك (tek, “unique; alone”), from Proto-Turkic *tēk.
Sources 4
- TDK Kişi Adları Sözlüğü (official Turkish given-name dictionary)
- Wiktionary
- Chinese Surnames Dictionary (Section 1)
- Skok, Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (1971-74)
Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Tek 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MY Malaysia | #115 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Teck | 102 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈8,300 est. | ≈1 in 32K | listed | Teck | 27 |
| CN China | — | ≈4,000 est. | ≈1 in 352K | — | Teck | 13 |
| SG Singapore | #347 | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.2K | — | Teck | 99 |
| US United States | — | 1,172as Tex | 1 in 284K | 1.1K | Teik | 129 |
| SA Saudi Arabia | — | ≈510 est. | ≈1 in 67K | — | Tek | 11 |
| AL Albania | — | 311as Teki | 1 in 9.9K | 311 | — | — |
| PL Poland | — | 34 | 1 in 1.1M | 34 | — | 1 |
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; INSTAT Albania — Search the name (given-name counts); dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20). 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)
Tek is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In cdo, the pair all disheveled, to trim, to pare off, to peel, (miéng) to pare sugar-cane
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In English, Pronunciation spelling of take, representing dialectal English.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In sib, pieces that have already been cut (as in cutting sugarcane)
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Icelandic, first-person singular active present indicative of taka
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In non, first-person singular present active indicative of taka
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In mqy, imitation of the sound of something falling
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
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)
- Gan Deb. 400not in their usual name4th-century BC Chinese astronomer and astrologer
- Empress Xiaogongrenb. 1660CNnot in their usual nameQing Dynasty empress (of Emperor Kangxi); mother of Yongzheng Emperor
- Vedat Tekb. 1873TRTurkish architect (1873–1942)
- Ahmet Ferit Tekb. 1878TRTurkish diplomat and statesperson (1878–1971)
- Wu Lien-tehb. 1879MYnot in their usual nameMalaysian physician (1879–1960)
- Zhu Deb. 1886CNnot in their usual nameMarshal of the People's Republic of China (1886－1976)
- Otto Braunb. 1900DEnot in their usual nameGerman communist writer (1900–1974)
- Deniz Tekb. 1952USTurkish-Australian musician (born 1952)
- Zhang Dib. 1968CNnot in their usual nameChinese judoka
- Stephen Fungb. 1974CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor, singer and filmmaker (born 1974)
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 42 sources across 23 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 390 | #56,551 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 305 | #65,066 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 252 | #72,022 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 12 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 12 | #124,389 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 5 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 5 | #209,509 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- 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
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 Tek mean, and where does it come from?
- From Ottoman Turkish تك (tek, “unique; alone”), from Proto-Turkic *tēk. Recorded by TDK Kişi Adları Sözlüğü (official Turkish given-name dictionary) and Wiktionary and 2 other sources.
- In which country does Tek have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 17 thousand people named Teck in Malaysia, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Tek?
- In Poland, the national register counted 34 people named Tek in 2026, about 1 in 1.1 million residents.
- How common is Tek compared with other names?
- In Malaysia, Tek is the 115th most common given name of 388,685 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Tek?
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/tekThe 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, “Tek” — the 115th most common given name in Malaysia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.