Meaning & origin
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1920. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ming through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 491
- 349 boys · 142 girls
- Most popular year
- 1981
- 23 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 8 in 2024. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 14 in 1981. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 9,534 as a first name in 2020; 3,274 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ming’s family of names
In English usage, Ming has a related form in Min. In Spanish usage, Ming as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Chinese form 明.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 9
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
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People named Ming
- Yao MingChinese basketball player (born 1980)
- Ming SmithAfrican American photographer (born 1951)
- Cai MingChinese singer and actressborn 1961
- Sophia LeungCanadian politicianborn 1933
- Ming van EijkenFrench artistic gymnastborn 2008
Characters named Ming: Qin Ming (Water Margin character), Kong Ming (Water Margin character), Yan Ming (Romance of the Three Kingdoms).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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