Kong
Masculine · “A Chinese family name”
Kong is one of the oldest continuously used family names on earth, and in the United States it arrives by two roads at once — Chinese families for whom it is a surname of immense standing, and Hmong families for whom it is an ordinary given name.
How old is the name Kong?
Kong first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Kong alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 900 people named Kong are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kong most popular?
Kong peaked in 1993, reaching #1321 nationally. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kong
No family name in the world has a longer paper trail. Kong is the surname of Confucius — the Latin name Jesuit missionaries built out of Kong Fuzi, Master Kong, when they introduced him to Europe. His descendants have kept a genealogy ever since, updated generation by generation for more than two and a half thousand years, and it is generally reckoned the longest continuously recorded family tree in existence. The most recent revision of it ran to several million names and, for the first time, included the daughters.
Meaningscholars disagree
A Chinese family name; in Hmong use, a given name
The Chinese character read Kong is a surname first and foremost, and the readings sometimes offered for it — a hole, a passage — describe the character's other uses rather than the name's sense. In Hmong, which is a different language family entirely, Kong is a personal name with its own usage and no relation to the Chinese one. Which is meant depends entirely on the family.
Pronouncing Kong
KONG
One syllable. In Mandarin it carries a falling tone that English does not reproduce, and the vowel is closer to the o of long than of song.
Nicknames for Kong
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
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 199374 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1321reached in 1993
- Change vs 2008
- −14.3%6 in 2012, from 7
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.
Kong in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 孔 in Chinese — same name
- Gong in Korean — related form
- Hung in Cantonese — transliteration
Kongs among us
people named Kong 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
Kong 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
- It is short, strong and impossible to mispronounce in English.
- It carries genuine historical weight for anyone who knows where it comes from.
- It needs no spelling out, ever.
- In American English the name collides immediately with a famous film gorilla, and a child will meet that on a playground.
- It reads as a surname to most Americans, which can complicate a form.
- Two unrelated traditions use it, so the story behind a particular child's name is the family's to tell.
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Kong
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Kongs 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 Kong are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kong in 2025?
- Kong is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Kong with classmates?
- Kong will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Kenneth#294 · Kevin#221 · Kyle#508 · Keith#800 · Karl#1585 · Kaleb#295 · Kurt#2258 · Kelly#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kong? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kong and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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