Hei
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Meaning
bright, splendid, or prosperous (熙)
The story
Hei in this collection represents 熙, a character read in Cantonese and associated with brightness, splendor, and prosperity. The character is the evidence. The same Latin spelling can point to another Chinese character, while the same written character can appear under a different romanization elsewhere. Hong Kong names are normally written in characters and receive a romanized form for English-language settings. Hei is a one-character given name, a compact pattern beside the more common two-character form. Its page's US curve stays near the floor and shows only a faint recent trace. That does not measure how familiar the name is in Hong Kong; it measures what American birth records can see. The honest story therefore begins with 熙, not with an English-looking syllable. In that documented form, Hei carries a small, clear idea chosen to travel across scripts.
How popular is Hei around the world?
Hei does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick. In England and Wales, 4 girls named Hei were born in 2025, ranked 4,867th among girls that year.
Hei is on the official records of England and Wales.
United States
under 5 a year
Hei does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
England and Wales
1 in 73,000
In England and Wales, 4 girls named Hei were born in 2025, ranked 4,867th among girls that year.
In England and Wales, 4 boys named Hei were born in 2025, ranked 4,275th among boys that year.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Canada
last on record 2016
Hei is not on the 2024 record for Canada, where names under 5 in a year are excluded at source.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
South Australia
last on record 2009
Hei is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
Cantonese and Hong Kong baby names · Short names · Gender-neutral names
The Hei deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Hei truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Hei fits with your family’s names and surname.
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