Given name & surname
Yang
“of the sun”
Yang is used as a given name and a surname. One Chinese interpretation is “of the sun.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Chinese interpretation is “of the sun.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Chinese.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1981. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Yang through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 338
- 291 boys · 47 girls
- Most popular year
- 1988
- 21 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 6 in 2024. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 21 in 1990. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 9,900 as a first name in 2020; 139,210 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.
Yang’s family of names
In Filipino usage, Yang as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with Young. In English usage, Yang as a surname has a related form in JANG. In Filipino usage, Yang as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with Yu.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 15
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- Janaequivalent
- Yudoublet · Tagalog
- Changequivalent
- Yungdoublet · Tagalog
- Youngdoublet · Tagalog
- Ieongequivalent
- 羊equivalent
- 揚equivalent
Show 7 moreShow fewer
People named Yang
- Sun YangChinese swimmerborn 1991
- Yu YangChinese badminton player, born 1986
- Yang WeiChinese artistic gymnast (born 1980)
- Yang Chuan-kwangTaiwanese decathlete (1933–2007)
- Yang YangChinese actorborn 1991
- Yang YangChinese short track speed skater and politicianborn 1975
- Yang YangChinese speed skaterborn 1977
- Lü YangChinese rowerborn 1993
- Zhou YangChinese literary critic (1908-1989)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Yang, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Sung
Sung is a surname from Chinese, ultimately from Wade–Giles. It is used in English and Indonesian.
87% boys · 13% girls
Wang
“king, prince”
>99% boys
Long
“resembling a dragon”
>99% boys
Zong
Zong is a surname from Chinese.
81% boys · 19% girls
Wing
“woman of glory”
88% boys · 12% girls
You
You is a surname from Wade–Giles, ultimately from Mandarin.
>99% boys
Fong
Fong is a surname from Cantonese, ultimately from Taishanese.
98% boys · 2% girls
Nong
Nong is a surname from Mandarin.
>99% boys