Ngoc
Feminine · “jade”
Ngoc is given to both — 673 girls and 54 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Ngoc begins with a sound English can make and cannot start a word with. The ng at the front is the sound at the end of sing, and every English speaker produces it a hundred times a day — but never first, which is why the name looks unpronounceable and is not. In Vietnamese it means jade, and it is given to daughters and sons alike.
How old is the name Ngoc?
Ngoc first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Ngoc alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 700 people named Ngoc are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ngoc most popular?
Ngoc peaked in 1982, reaching #2150 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 12,792 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Ngoc
Vietnamese names are usually built of two or three parts, each of them a word, and the pieces carry their meanings openly — light, jade, spring, cloud. Ngoc is among the most used of them and sits comfortably in a boy's name or a girl's. It came into American records with the refugee arrivals of the nineteen-seventies and after, generally stripped of its diacritics because American forms could not take them. That stripping is the main thing that has happened to the name in English: the letters survive, the tone mark does not, and the tone is not decoration.
Meaning
jade; precious stone
Vietnamese ngoc means jade, and more broadly a gem or precious stone; it is written with a character borrowed from Chinese and shares its sense there. It appears constantly in Vietnamese names, alone and as one half of a two-part name — Bao Ngoc, Ngoc Anh, Kim Ngoc. The meaning is completely settled. What English cannot show is the tone: Vietnamese has six, and the one on this word is part of the word rather than an accent on it.
Pronouncing Ngoc
ngawp
One syllable. The ng is the sound at the end of sing, moved to the front, and the vowel is short with the final consonant barely released — closer to ngawp than to anything English spells. Americans routinely produce NOCK or EN-gock. Neither is right and both are understood.
Nicknames for Ngoc
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 girls named
- 198247 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2150reached in 1982
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%5 in 2025, 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.
Ngoc in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ngọc in Vietnamese — same name
- 玉 in Chinese — related form
Ngocs among us
people named Ngoc are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Ngoc
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 Lindi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ngoc's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lindi climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lindi's path sketches the road Ngoc is walking now.
Ngoc 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
Ngoc beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ngoc in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is one concrete word and it is a valued one in the culture the name comes from.
- It works for either child, and Vietnamese assigns it no sex.
- Four letters and one syllable, which fits any surname without crowding.
- English speakers cannot begin a word with ng and will not manage the name on first attempt, or on many afterward.
- The tone mark that is part of the word does not survive American forms, so the written name is incomplete in its own language.
- Many Vietnamese-American families adopt an English working name alongside this one, which is a practical choice rather than a concession.
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What they receive
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Ngoc
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ngocs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Ngoc are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ngoc in 2025?
- Ngoc ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ngoc?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Ngoc — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ngoc with classmates?
- Ngoc will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ngoc
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ngoc? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ngoc and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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