Yo
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A greeting similar to hi
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/joʊ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Yo is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 406K(measured from records)
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 4K
- FRFrance≈1 in 34K
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)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 199 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 4.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈16,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Hong Kong, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
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)
A greeting similar to hi.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.
How Yo is read(measured from records)
Yo is one spelling over 5 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 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.
- English21%
A greeting similar to hi.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Japanese17%
The hiragana syllable よ (yo) or the katakana syllable ヨ (yo) in Hepburn romanization.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- French11%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Yo in French.
- Spanish11%
first-person singular pronoun in the nominative case; I
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Arabic9.1%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Yo in Arabic.
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Yo 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 85K | — | Yo | 16 |
| FR France | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 34K | 20 | — | 5 |
| HK Hong Kong | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 4K | — | Yo | 22 |
| ES Spain | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 38K | — | Yo | 29 |
| PH Philippines | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 97K | — | Yo | 25 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈820 est. | ≈1 in 40K | — | Yo | 31 |
| US United States | 819 | 1 in 406K | 800 | Yo | 199 |
| SG Singapore | ≈140 est. | ≈1 in 44K | — | Yo | 20 |
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 2000; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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)
Yo is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In cdo, variegated, elegant, lucky, a prize, a fine prospect, (gudng-chat)
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In pi, masculine nominative singular of ya (“who (relative)”)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Yoruba, to become saturated with food or drinks; to become full (after eating)
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)
- Yō Sanob. 1928JPJapanese author of mystery novels (1928-2013)
- Yō Inoueb. 1946JPJapanese voice actress (1946–2003)
- Yō Takeyamab. 1946JPJapanese screenwriter
- Yō Kitazawab. 1963JPJapanese actor and voice actor
- Yō Murakamib. 1971JPactor
- Yō Takahashib. 1972JPJapanese actor (1972-)
- Yō Ōizumib. 1973JPJapanese actor and voice actor
- Yō Hitotob. 1976JPJapanese-Taiwanese pop singer (born 1976)
- Yō Taichib. 1994JPJapanese voice actress
- Yo YoshidaJPJapanese actress
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 32 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 800 | #28,166 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 707 | #32,524 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 630 | #37,907 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 12 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 10 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 8 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 7 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 5 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 4 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 4 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 4 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 3 | — |
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 Yo mean, and where does it come from?
- A greeting similar to hi. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- Is Yo a male or female name?
- Yo is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- What are other forms of the name Yo?
- In the etymology graph, Jo and Folu are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Yo have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 16 thousand people named Yo in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled yo.
- How common is the name Yo?
- In the United States, the national register counted 819 people named Yo in 2020, about 1 in 406 thousand residents.
- How do you pronounce Yo?
- A machine transcription gives /joʊ/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Yo?
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/yoThe 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, “Yo”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.