Hung
Masculine · “brave”
The Hung kings are where Vietnam begins. Eighteen of them, ruling for two and a half thousand years by the traditional count, descended from a dragon lord and a mountain fairy — and the anniversary of the founder is a national holiday with a temple, a procession and a great deal of sticky rice.
How old is the name Hung?
Hung first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Hung alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 1,000 people named Hung are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hung most popular?
Hung peaked in 1982, reaching #957 nationally. See the whole 1982 chart.
Where it comes from
From a Chinese-derived word meaning brave to Hung
The story of Hung
The founding story is unusually good. A dragon lord of the sea marries a fairy of the mountains; she bears a hundred children in a sac of eggs; the parents separate because one belongs to the water and one to the highlands, and they divide the children between them. The eldest of the mountain half becomes the first Hung king. Whether any of the eighteen existed is beside the point — the dynasty is the origin story of a national identity, the anniversary was made a public holiday in this century, and every Vietnamese schoolchild can tell you about the eggs.
Meaning
brave, heroic
The word comes from the Chinese-derived layer of Vietnamese and means brave or heroic; it is one of the standard elements in men's names. The English reading is an accident: the same three letters spell the past participle of an English verb, and the two words have nothing to do with each other. An American bearer will spend a good deal of his life explaining that.
How the name formed
- a Chinese-derived word meaning brave
- the Hung kings as Vietnam's founding dynasty
- the founder's anniversary becomes a national holiday
- resettlement brings the name to America after 1975
- the English reading of the spelling causes permanent trouble
Related forms: Hung · Xiong
Pronouncing Hung
HOONG
One syllable with a vowel closer to the one in book than the one in hung, and a tone English cannot carry. The English word and the Vietnamese name are not pronounced alike by anybody who knows both.
Nicknames for Hung
Moderate
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 198288 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #957reached in 1982
- Change vs 2018
- 0.0%5 in 2022, from 5
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.
Hung in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hung in Vietnamese — same name
- Xiong in Chinese — related form
Hungs among us
people named Hung are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Hung sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is strong, clear and easy to explain.
- It carries a national founding story in a single syllable.
- Four letters, impossible to misspell once heard.
- In English the spelling is a common word with an unfortunate slang use, and this is unavoidable.
- The vowel and the tone are both lost in English mouths.
- Many bearers adopt an English name for daily use, which is worth planning for rather than discovering.
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Hung
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Hungs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Hung are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hung in 2025?
- Hung is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hung with classmates?
- Hung will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Henry#5 · Harold#991 · Harry#775 · Howard#1002 · Hunter#130 · Herbert#2641 · Herman#2363 · Harvey#251
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hung? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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