Given name & surname
Tang
Tang is a surname from Mandarin. It is used in English, Danish, Tagalog, and Indonesian.
Meaning & origin
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1980. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Tang through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 47
- 0 boys · 47 girls
- Most popular year
- 1981
- 8 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 girls is 5 in 1991. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 8 in 1981. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 900 as a first name in 2020; 42,548 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.
Tang’s family of names
In Indonesian usage, Tang as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with Teng. In Burmese usage, Tang is a Roman-alphabet rendering of တင်. In English usage, Tang as a surname has a related form in T'ang.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Tang has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Chinese roots to each of them.
4 related names in 4 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
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 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Tang
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Tang, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Ling
“as sweet as the tinkling of a bell”
>99% girls
Pang
“one who is innovative”
2% boys · 98% girls
Oanh
“oriole”
>99% girls
Sheng
“one who is victorious”
4% boys · 96% girls
Lai
“a dark-skinned man”
10% boys · 90% girls
Yin
“a silvery woman”
>99% girls
Yen
“one who is desired”
23% boys · 77% girls
Mi
Mi is a feminine given name from Chinese. It is used in Vietnamese.
>99% girls