Given name & surname
Zhen
“one who is precious and chaste”
Zhen is used as a given name and a surname. One Chinese interpretation is “one who is precious and chaste.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Chinese interpretation is “one who is precious and chaste.”
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 1995. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Zhen through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 116
- 94 boys · 22 girls
- Most popular year
- 2023
- 21 babies
- 2025
- 6
- #11,993 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +44%
- Rising
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 6 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 11,993 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 4,065 as a first name in 2020; 5,198 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.
Zhen’s family of names
Zhen has a related form in Zen. Zhen has a related form in Zhenni. Zhen has a related form in Zenn.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 10
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Show 2 moreShow fewer
People named Zhen
- Wang ZhenChinese racewalkerborn 1991
- Cao ZhenState of Cao Wei general (died 231)185–231
- Wang ZhenMing Dynasty eunuch, died 14491500–1449
- Lin Chen-haoTaiwanese judoka (1997-)
- Hu ZhenLate 2nd century Chinese general101
- Zheng ZhenQing dynasty person CBDB = 658591806–1864
- Li Zhenson of Emperor Taizong of Tang627–688
- Xian Zhen
- Chen ChenTaiwanese actressborn 1948
Characters named Zhen: Chen Zhen (fictional character), Xie Zhen (Water Margin character).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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