Chan
Masculine · “Chinese Chen”
Chan is given to both — 1,035 boys and 212 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
About a hundred surnames cover the great majority of the Chinese population, which is why the classical term for the common people is the Old Hundred Names. Europe has millions of surnames; China has a few thousand, and most of them are rare.
How old is the name Chan?
Chan first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Chan alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 900 people named Chan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chan most popular?
Chan peaked in 1965, reaching #1774 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 7,940 places below that high. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Chen to Chan
The story of Chan
Chinese surname distribution is extraordinarily concentrated. The hundred commonest cover roughly eighty-five per cent of the population of over a billion people, and the top three, Wang, Li and Zhang, account for well over two hundred million between them. The classical phrase for the ordinary population, laobaixing, means the old hundred surnames. The reason is historical: surnames were adopted early, spread from a small number of clan and state names, and were not multiplied by the occupational and topographic coinage that produced the European stock. England alone has several hundred thousand surnames for a fraction of the population. A practical consequence is that Chinese naming carries its individuating information in the given name, which is usually chosen rather than inherited, while European naming does the opposite.
Meaningscholars disagree
Chinese Chen, an ancient state
Chan is the Cantonese romanisation of the surname written Chen in Mandarin, one of the most common surnames in the world, taken from the ancient state of Chen. The same spelling also serves as a short form of Chandler and Chance in American use. The peak is 1965.
How the name formed
- Chen
- Chan
Related forms: Chen · Tran · Jin
Pronouncing Chan
CHAN
One syllable. Cantonese is tonal and the tone is not written in the English spelling. Mandarin Chen is said with a different vowel.
Nicknames for Chan
Limited
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1919
- Most boys named
- 198624 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1774reached in 1965
- Change vs 2022
- −12.5%7 in 2025, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Chan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chen in Mandarin — same name
- Tran in Vietnamese — related form
- Jin in Korean — related form
Chans among us
people named Chan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Chan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Patton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Chan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Patton climbed just as high around 1945, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Patton's path sketches the road Chan is walking now.
Chan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Chan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Chan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and one syllable, as compact as a name gets.
- It is one of the most widely borne names on earth.
- There is no possible mispronunciation in English.
- It is a surname rather than a given name in Chinese.
- The tone, which matters in Cantonese, is lost in English.
- Chen is the standard Mandarin romanisation.
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What they receive
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Chan
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Chans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Chan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chan in 2025?
- Chan ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Chan?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Chan — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Chan with classmates?
- Chan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Chan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Chan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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