Chin

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: from OE cin ‘chin’; nickname for one with a prominent or long chin or a beard; first attested Stephen Chinne 1243 AssSo (Somerset)

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/tʃɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Chin is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Malaysia it is the 45th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 272(inferred from the name graph)
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 801
  • JMJamaica≈1 in 2.4K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈130,000 people, est.

Sources
485 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 272 (inferred from the name graph)

Malaysia, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from OE cin ‘chin’; nickname for one with a prominent or long chin or a beard; first attested Stephen Chinne 1243 AssSo (Somerset).

Sources 1

  • A Dictionary of English Surnames

Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.

How Chin is read(measured from records)

Chin is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English62%

    from OE cin ‘chin’; nickname for one with a prominent or long chin or a beard; first attested Stephen Chinne 1243 AssSo (Somerset).

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

    The bottom of a face, (specifically) the typically jutting jawline below the mouth.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

    hills, people, Burma; pers. name

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

    Chinese dynasties

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  • Malay17%

    a surname from Hakka

    as a wordrecorded as Indonesiankaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Chin counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Chin is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈130,000 est.≈1 in 10K—Chin48
MY Malaysia#45≈120,000 est.≈1 in 272875Chin169
US United States#99227,4871 in 12K28KChin485
SG Singapore#56≈7,700 est.≈1 in 801—Chin172
HK Hong Kong#226≈6,100 est.≈1 in 1.2K—Chin83
JM Jamaica#96≈1,200 est.≈1 in 2.4K—Chin38
GY Guyana—1531 in 4.9K153—8

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; data.gov.my — Name Popularity Dashboard (JPN, by decade and ethnicity); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Chin is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Korean surname45 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in South Korea, United States, Malaysia, China

    Also written 진, Jin, 진국, 진오, Chen

  • Malay surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, United States

    Languages: Malay, Indonesian

    Also written Chín, Čhîn

  • Chinese surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong

    Also written Chîn, Ch'In, Chín, Chïn

  • a separate name7 spellings in the group

    Also written Čhin, Chín, Čhīn, Chìn, Chi-N

  • Khmer surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong

    Also written Çhin, Chín, Çhïn, Çhīn, Çhín

  • French surname20 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Malaysia, Canada

    Also written Ćhïn, Čhîn, Çhîn, Çhįn, Chîn

68 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Chin is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Italian, redução dialetal setentrional de Chino.

    as a nameDicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

190019502000Pridi Banomyong, b. 1900Margaret Chan, b. 1947Chen Shui-bian, b. 1950Roger Yonchien Tsien, b. 1952Jackie Chan, b. 1954Joan Chen, b. 1961Donnie Yen, b. 1963Steve Chen, b. 1978Vanessa-Mae, b. 1978Priscilla Chan, b. 1985
  • Pridi Banomyongb. 1900THnot in their usual nameThai prime minister (1900-1983)
  • Margaret Chanb. 1947CNnot in their usual nameChinese-Canadian physician (born 1947)
  • Chen Shui-bianb. 1950TWnot in their usual name10th and 11th President of Republic of China(Taiwan) (2000–2008)
  • Roger Yonchien Tsienb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican biochemist (1952-2016)
  • Jackie Chanb. 1954CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor and martial artist (born 1954)
  • Joan Chenb. 1961CNnot in their usual nameChinese-American actress and director
  • Donnie Yenb. 1963CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor, film director and martial artist (born 1963)
  • Steve Chenb. 1978TWnot in their usual nameChinese-American businessman
  • Vanessa-Maeb. 1978SGnot in their usual nameBritish violinist
  • Priscilla Chanb. 1985USnot in their usual nameAmerican pediatrician and philanthropist

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Mr Chin,
InformalHi Chin,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 56 sources across 31 countries.

Official registers attesting Chin
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.6K#5,489
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.5K#5,489
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)19905—

Reference works 6

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What are other forms of the name Chin?
In the etymology graph, Kinn and چانه are forms of the same name in other languages.
What does the name Chin mean, and where does it come from?
from OE cin ‘chin’; nickname for one with a prominent or long chin or a beard; first attested Stephen Chinne 1243 AssSo (Somerset). Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
How do you pronounce Chin?
A machine transcription gives /tʃɪn/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Chin have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 133 thousand people named Chin in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled chin.
How common is the name Chin?
In the United States, the national register counted 27,487 people named Chin in 2010, about 1 in 12 thousand residents.
How common is Chin compared with other names?
In Malaysia, Chin is the 45th most common surname of 291,743 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Chin?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/chin

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Chin” — the 45th most common surname in Malaysia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Chin parses inside a full name →