Meaning & origin
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1970. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ngai through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 66
- 66 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1970
- 26 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1998. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 26 in 1970. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 466 as a first name in 2020; 1,808 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ngai’s family of names
The ring: across languages.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Ngai, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Shan
“resembling coral” · “one who is wise and elderly”
96% boys · 4% girls
Suen
Suen is a surname from Cantonese.
>99% boys
Guan
Guan is a surname from Chinese.
>99% boys
Tai
“a very big woman” · “one who is talented and prosperous”
80% boys · 20% girls
Woo
Woo is a surname from Mandarin, ultimately from Cantonese.
>99% boys
Chang
“one who is unhindered”
98% boys · 2% girls
Ming
Ming is a masculine given name from Mandarin.
>99% boys
Kwok
Kwok is a surname from Cantonese. It is used in English, Polish, and Tagalog.
>99% boys