Where did all the Huat go? Singapore's lucky business names, 1970 to now
In the 1970s, 1 in 32 new Singapore businesses had Huat in its name. In the 2020s, it is 1 in 1,250. We read 2.1 million business names to see where the luck went.
Pick a luck word
Every section below changes to the word you pick.
Spot the business
Each dot is one new business. The coloured dot is the one with in its name.
Decade by decade
How common was among new businesses in each decade. Bigger circle, more common.
Which trades use most?
Out of every 1,000 businesses in a trade, how many have in the name.
What goes with ?
The words most often right next to it. Bigger bubble, more businesses.
Where is most common?
By each business's registered address, all years together.
Most likely
Least likely
Does bring luck?
Share of businesses still registered today, compared with all businesses started in the same decade.
Fun finds
The short version
Huat in Singapore business names: 2,788 of 87,850 businesses registered in the 1970s (1 in 32) had Huat in the name, against 377 of 471,301 in the 2020s so far (1 in 1,250), from ACRA's register of 2,111,023 businesses registered from 1970 to September 2026, downloaded 2 Oct 2026.
Huat is the Hokkien word for to prosper. 9,719 registered businesses have it as a whole word in the name and 1,390 are still registered. Fatt, Lucky, Fortune and Prosperity follow the same story: all five luck words together were in 1 in 27 new names in the 1970s and 1 in 311 in the 2020s. Since 2011, the English words (Lucky, Fortune, Prosperity) have been in at least as many new names as Huat and Fatt every year, and in 2025 by 203 names against 75, but they have never come close to Huat's 1970s level.
Among trades guessed from business names, Huat is most common in provision shops & minimarts (42 in every 1,000), hardware & electrical (23) and construction & renovation (19), and rarest in tech & digital (0.2). By registered address, the areas with the highest share are Bedok & Upper East Coast (1 in 151) and Little India & Farrer Park (1 in 164).
By Ben (opens in a new tab). Updated . Data: Entities Registered with ACRA, data.gov.sg.
Questions people ask
What does Huat mean in a Singapore business name?
Huat is the Hokkien word for to prosper, so a business with Huat in its name is wishing itself prosperity. In ACRA's register, 9,719 businesses registered from 1970 to September 2026 have it as a whole word in the name. It often follows a family or clan word: Seng Huat (593 businesses) and Soon Huat (553) are the most common pairs. Some Huats are also personal names, so not every one is a deliberate wish.
How many Singapore businesses have Huat in their name?
9,719 businesses registered from 1970 to September 2026 have Huat in the name, and 1,390 of them are still registered today. The rest have been deregistered.
Is Huat still a popular name for new businesses?
No. In the 1970s, 1 in 32 new businesses had Huat in the name. In the 2020s so far (to September 2026), it is 1 in 1,250, about 40 times rarer. It is not gone: Heng Ji Huat Pte. Ltd. was registered in August 2026.
Which trades use Huat most?
Among trades guessed from words in the business name, provision shops & minimarts lead with 42 Huat businesses in every 1,000, then hardware & electrical (23) and construction & renovation (19). Tech & digital firms rarely use it (0.2 in 1,000). Older trades look Huat-heavier partly because they were common when Huat was popular.
Where in Singapore is Huat most common?
By registered address, Bedok & Upper East Coast has the highest share (1 in 151 businesses), followed by Little India & Farrer Park (1 in 164). Raffles Place & Marina has the lowest (1 in 925). A registered address is not always where a business trades, and areas with fewer than 30 Huat businesses are not ranked.
Did English words like Lucky and Fortune replace Huat?
Not really. Since 2011, new businesses named Lucky, Fortune or Prosperity have been at least as many as those named Huat or Fatt every year. But all five luck words together fell from 1 in 27 new names in the 1970s to 1 in 311 in the 2020s, so the English words took a small share of a much smaller wish.
Do businesses named Huat last longer?
Only slightly, if at all. Huat businesses beat the average share still registered in 4 of 6 decades and trailed in 2. For example, of Huat businesses started in the 1990s, 10.9% are still registered, against 9.2% of all businesses started that decade.
The numbers behind it
| Decade registered | New businesses | With Huat in the name | Share | Change from the decade before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 87,850 | 2,788 | 1 in 32 | Start |
| 1980s | 199,913 | 2,875 | 1 in 70 | 2.2× rarer |
| 1990s | 299,488 | 1,756 | 1 in 171 | 2.5× rarer |
| 2000s | 433,320 | 1,112 | 1 in 390 | 2.3× rarer |
| 2010s | 619,151 | 811 | 1 in 763 | 2.0× rarer |
| 2020s (to Sep 2026) | 471,301 | 377 | 1 in 1,250 | 1.6× rarer |
| Decade registered | Huat | Fatt | Lucky | Fortune | Prosperity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 2,788 | 351 | 122 | 31 | 23 |
| 1980s | 2,875 | 476 | 210 | 131 | 63 |
| 1990s | 1,756 | 258 | 209 | 197 | 91 |
| 2000s | 1,112 | 145 | 295 | 296 | 145 |
| 2010s | 811 | 81 | 412 | 468 | 204 |
| 2020s | 377 | 25 | 371 | 431 | 316 |
The boring bit
Where the data comes from
ACRA's Entities Registered with ACRA on data.gov.sg: 2,120,264 businesses, open and closed. We used the 2,111,023 registered from 1970 to September 2026, downloaded 2 Oct 2026. A business that never registered with ACRA is not in it.
What is not claimed
- A name is not always a wish. Huat also appears in Chinese given names, so a business such as "Ng Eng Huat General Contractor" may be named after its owner.
- Trades are guessed from words in the name, because the file does not say what a business does. A business named just "Tan Huat" counts in no trade.
- Areas use the registered address, which can be an accountant's office. Areas with fewer than 30 matching businesses are not ranked.
- Older trades look Huat-heavier partly because they were common when Huat was popular.
- Registrations jump around 1974 and 1975, probably because long-running businesses entered the register then, so some 1970s names reflect earlier habits.
- 2026 covers January to September only, and counts as part of the 2020s.
- This says nothing about how well any business is run.
Coverage
Every registered business from 1970 to September 2026 was read: 2,111,023 of 2,111,023. Words were matched as whole words, so Huat is found in "Seng Huat" but not inside a longer word.
Report an error. Corrections are logged publicly with a date.
How we did it
- Searched 2.1 million names for each word. Whole-word matches only. An early try at Cantonese "Fat" caught "Chicken Fat Mamas", so we kept only "Fatt".
- Left out confusing words. "Heng" also means luck, but it is a common surname, so counting it would mostly count people called Heng.
- Turned counts into "1 in X". Singapore registered about five times more businesses in the 2010s than the 1970s, so raw counts mislead. Dividing by all new businesses in the decade makes decades comparable.
- Grouped businesses into trades using words in their names, such as coffee, renovation or motor.
- Mapped postal codes to areas. The first two digits of a Singapore postal code give the postal sector, and a small lookup table placed each sector in an area.
- Counted neighbouring words to find each luck word's most common pairs.
- Compared survival. For each decade, we compared the share of Huat businesses still registered with the share of all businesses from the same decade.
Show the Python code
import pandas as pd
acra = pd.read_csv("acra_entities.csv", dtype=str)
acra["year"] = acra.uen_issue_date.str[:4].astype(int)
acra = acra[acra.year.between(1970, 2026)]
names = acra.entity_name.str.upper()
acra["huat"] = names.str.contains(r"\bHUAT\b", regex=True)
acra["decade"] = acra.year // 10 * 10
per_decade = acra.groupby("decade").huat.agg(["sum", "size"])
per_decade["one_in"] = (per_decade["size"] / per_decade["sum"]).round()
print(per_decade) # 1970s: 1 in 32, 2020s: 1 in 1,250
# trades guessed from names
food = names.str.contains(r"\b(COFFEE|RESTAURANT|FOOD|BAKERY)\b")
print(acra[food].huat.mean() * 1000, "per 1,000 food businesses")Source: Entities Registered with ACRA (opens in a new tab), data.gov.sg, downloaded 2 Oct 2026. Contains information from data.gov.sg made available under the Singapore Open Data Licence.