Skip to content
BM

Chinese Names · Boy

Ah Kow name meaning

  • 阿九familiar prefix; nine
  • 阿狗familiar prefix; dog
Letters
5
Syllables
2
First letter
A
Romanization
Hokkien, Cantonese
Character options
2
Category
Chinese Names
Gender
♂ Boy
  • Chinese characters阿九阿狗
Peak 1950s: 11.4%
of the boy top-10 total
JPN Chinese table, 1940s–2010s. JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)
Decadeboy
1940s–
1950s11.4%
1960s–
1970s–
1980s–
1990s–
2000s–
2010s–

Chinese Names: A

Ah Kow is a Chinese boy's name from Hokkien or Cantonese, possibly written 阿九 ('nine') or 阿狗 ('dog'), with the familiar prefix Ah.

Chinese characters for Ah Kow

This spelling is common in Hokkien and Cantonese romanization.

  • 阿九

    familiar prefix; nine

    Hokkien a káu / Cantonese aa3 gau2

  • 阿狗

    familiar prefix; dog

    Hokkien a káu / Cantonese aa3 gau2

One spelling can stand for several characters. The meaning of a name depends on the characters the family chose; characters marked “attested” are found in records of real names.

About the name Ah Kow

Ah Kow combines the familiar prefix Ah (阿) with the syllable Kow, a spelling of Hokkien káu or Cantonese gau2. That sound can stand for 九 (nine) or 狗 (dog). According to JPN, it peaked in the 1950s with 1,024 baby boys. The real meaning depends on the characters the family chose.

Gender♂ Boy
RomanizationHokkien, Cantonese
PartsAh + Kow
First letterChinese Names starting with A

Ah Kow in official JPN data

1940s
not in the top 10
1950s
Boy: 1,024 · 11.4%
1960s
not in the top 10
1970s
not in the top 10
1980s
not in the top 10
1990s
not in the top 10
2000s
not in the top 10
2010s
not in the top 10
People registered with Ah Kow as their first name (as published by JPN), by decade of birth, for the decades in which it was in the top 10 for its sex in the JPN Chinese table. Bar length shows the name’s share of that decade’s top-10 total for the sex (the percentage after the count), because those totals differ between decades. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)

Character pages

Each page shows the character’s recorded meanings, dialect readings and every Malaysian spelling.

Sources

  1. Wiktionary: 阿 · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
  2. MDBG: 阿 · mdbg.net · meaning
  3. Wiktionary: 九 · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
  4. MDBG: 九 · mdbg.net · meaning
  5. Wiktionary: 狗 · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
  6. MDBG: 狗 · mdbg.net · meaning

More Chinese Names starting with A

Names are shared across communities. The categories on this site are for browsing only: they describe a name and its spelling, not anyone’s ethnicity, religion or background.

Entry ID: mn00166 · Updated · How we research names · Report a mistake