Thanh
Masculine · “clear”
Thanh is given to both — 1,099 boys and 650 girls since 1880. See Thanh as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Thanh is one of the commonest elements in Vietnamese names and one of the least translatable, for a reason that has nothing to do with the language being difficult. Written in the Latin alphabet, it is a single word. In the writing system Vietnamese used before, it was four different words, and the alphabet cannot tell them apart.
How old is the name Thanh?
Thanh first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Thanh alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 1,100 people named Thanh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thanh most popular?
Thanh peaked in 1982, reaching #1059 nationally. See the whole 1982 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Chinese vocabulary borrowed into Vietnamese over a thousand years to Thanh
The story of Thanh
Thanh enters the American record in the second half of the 1970s, and the reason is not a fashion. Saigon fell in the spring of 1975, and within months Congress had passed the legislation that resettled the first large wave of Vietnamese families in the United States; more arrived by sea over the following decade. The first American Thanhs were born in the years immediately around that crossing, or arrived as small children, which is why the name has an entry date rather than a history in the record. It is not a new name. It is a very old one whose American paperwork starts in one particular year.
Meaningscholars disagree
clear, pure, blue-green, or a sound — depending on which word it is
Vietnamese took a great deal of its formal vocabulary from Chinese over a thousand years, and names are drawn from that layer. Written in characters, the words behind Thanh are distinct: one means clear or pure, one means the blue-green of new leaves and deep water, one means a sound or a voice, one means to become or to complete. Romanised, all four are Thanh. The family that chose the name knows which one it is; the birth certificate does not record it, and no outsider can recover it from the spelling. A translation offered without asking the family is a guess.
How the name formed
- Chinese vocabulary borrowed into Vietnamese over a thousand years
- four distinct written words share the syllable thanh
- the Latin alphabet replaces characters in Vietnamese
- resettlement brings the name to the United States after 1975
- used for sons and daughters alike
Related forms: Thanh · Qing · Thanh Tam
Pronouncing Thanh
TAHN
Closer to tahn than to thanh: the h after the t is not an English th sound, and the final letters close the syllable rather than adding one. English speakers regularly produce two syllables where there is one.
Nicknames for Thanh
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
- 1976
- Most boys named
- 198274 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1059reached in 1982
- Change vs 2019
- −28.6%5 in 2021, 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.
Thanh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thanh in Vietnamese — same name
- Qing in Chinese — related form
- Thanh Tam in Vietnamese — related form
Thanhs among us
people named Thanh 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
Thanh 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, spelled with five plain letters, and impossible to abbreviate into something unwanted.
- It works for a son or a daughter, which Vietnamese naming has always allowed and English rarely does.
- It carries a family's origin without being difficult for an English speaker to attempt.
- English readers will attack the th and produce a sound that is not in the name at all.
- The meaning cannot be printed on a wall chart, because the spelling does not preserve which word it is.
- In American records it looks unisex, which occasionally causes trouble on forms that want to guess.
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What they receive
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Thanh
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Thanhs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Thanh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thanh in 2025?
- Thanh is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Thanh with classmates?
- Thanh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thanh? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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