Given name & surname
Tong
“having a pleasant fragrance”
Tong is used as a given name and a surname. One Vietnamese interpretation is “having a pleasant fragrance.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Vietnamese interpretation is “having a pleasant fragrance.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Vietnamese.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1946. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Tong through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 309
- 309 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1993
- 22 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 5 in 2019. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 4,954 as a first name in 2020; 14,765 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.
Tong’s family of names
In Indonesian usage, Tong as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with Teng. Tong has a related form in Tonge. In Indonesian usage, Tong as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with TNG.
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 17
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 Tong
- Pang TongAdvisor to Chinese warlord Liu Bei (179-214)
- Bao TongPolicy secretary of former CCP general secretary & Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang (1932–2022)
- Ling TongGeneral serving under warlord Sun Quan (189–217)
- Wang TongChinese philosopher and politician (584–617)
- Li TongChinese general serving warlord Cao Cao (168-209)
- Zhou Tongfootballerborn 1990
Characters named Tong: Zhou Tong (Water Margin character).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Tong, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Trong
“one who is respected”
>99% boys
Dong
“born during the winter”
>99% boys
Tin
“a great thinker”
>99% boys
Phong
“of the wind”
>99% boys
Dang
“one who is praiseworthy”
98% boys · 2% girls
Toan
“one who is safe”
>99% boys
Danh
Danh is a surname.
>99% boys
Huynh
“an older brother”
>99% boys