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Chung

UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

Literal meaning not recorded; Chinese origin

Chung has been given to 209 babies in the U.S. since 1942. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1982, with 17 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 95% boys, 5% girls all-time.

Babies named Chung, 1996

1 in 729,000

Chung over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Chung over time

In 1996, Chung went to 0% girls and 100% boys.

19421996

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Chung: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded; Chinese origin

Chinese

What Chung means

Chung is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Chung is used in Vietnamese. Its origins include Chinese.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Vietnamese, Chung is pronounced [t͡ɕʊwŋ͡m˧˧].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 198 boys were recorded with the name Chung between 1942 and 1996. Its highest annual count was 17 in 1982; its best national rank was #2,724 in 1982.

In the United States, 11 girls were recorded with the name Chung between 1979 and 1987. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1987; its best national rank was #10,077 in 1987.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Chung?

Chung had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1996, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1996
1 in 729,000
5 of 3,646,048 births
Among boys only
1 in 379,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1996
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
505,451 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Chung sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1996 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 505,451 children born in 1996 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Chung. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Chungs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Chung was born before 1984 — so the typical Chung is around 41 today.

Median birth year
1984
About 41 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
52.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
94.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
193
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 52.5% of all recorded uses (104).

Is Chung rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1982 (17)
Years since peak
43
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,724
1982

Spellings of Chung

Chung is not the most common spelling — Chuck is, with 63.3% against Chung's 0.70%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Chung is used

Across 1910–2025, Chung was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,340,977 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Chung has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Chung around the world

Where Chung ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2000
    #3,036
    in 2000
  • Canada
    1998–1998
    #1,953
    in 1998
  • South Australia
    1984–1994
    #531
    in 1994

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Chung by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,724
1982
Peak year
1982
17 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
1996
All-time count
198
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#10,077
1987
Peak year
1987
6 that year
First recorded
1979
Last recorded
1987
All-time count
11
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Chung

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MungChueChurchChunChuongChuckyTungSeungChukwudiJungChukwumaTrungChuckieCungSungDungChukaAungChukwukaKyungChuckChubbyChueyeeChurchill

Sibling names for Chung

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Chung

Top names of 1982, Chung's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1982Boys' names starting with C