Tran
surname · Latin script
Meaning: aus mnd. trane/tra(h)n ‘Träne’; Übername zu einer persönlichen Eigenschaft (weinerlich/empfindsam)
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ʈaŋ˧˥/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Tran is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Vietnam than in any other country, where it is the 2nd most common surname.
- VNVietnam≈1 in 30(inferred from the name graph)
- AOAngola≈1 in 324
- AUAustralia≈1 in 1.1K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Tran itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Vietnam (inferred from the name graph)
- #165 (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 533 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 30 (inferred from the name graph)
≈3,300,000 people, est.
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Vietnam, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
aus mnd. trane/tra(h)n ‘Träne’; Übername zu einer persönlichen Eigenschaft (weinerlich/empfindsam). Bearer count: 1284+1.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Tran 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VN Vietnam | #2 | ≈3,300,000 est. | ≈1 in 30 | 166 | Tran | 289 |
| CN China | — | ≈820,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.7K | — | Tran | 25 |
| US United States | #127 | 188,498 | 1 in 1.8K | 234K | Tran | 533 |
| AO Angola | #8 | ≈100,000 est. | ≈1 in 324 | — | Tran | 5 |
| ES Spain | — | 26,262as Chen | 1 in 1.9K | 26K | — | 38 |
| AU Australia | #55 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | 1 | Tran | 262 |
| CL Chile | #885 | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.3K | — | Tran | 23 |
| NO Norway | #536 | 6,506 | 1 in 840 | 6.5K | Tran | 70 |
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: Vietnamese Surname Corpus — academic citation compilation; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). 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 recorded senses(measured from records)
Tran is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, Personenmerkmal: zu mhd. trahen, trān, spätmhd. trēne, mnd. trān „Träne, Tropfen“; wohl „weinerlich/bekümmert“ oder „triefend“. Bearer count: 1543.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In Akan, tram, red.v,, s, tram, atra-nnufiia, = nea watra nnnfda, pr, 3359- atrdp5 e, pLxx-y [Dan. trappe] step, degree or gradient of a stair- case; (pi,) stair-case, flight of steps, stairs made of stones, bricks &c. cf. antweri. [G. atrakpS.]
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In Akan, v, [inf, q- & a-] to discharge many guns in company or in a volley, to volley* nivknij s. ntane-ani. atrdnn5, a kind of bird = afiafi-anoma, pr. 1125
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In German, train oil; oil extracted from the fatty tissue (blubber) of certain polar mammals
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Norwegian Nynorsk, cod liver oil
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)
- 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)
- 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
- Steve Chenb. 1978TWnot in their usual nameChinese-American businessman
- Vanessa-Maeb. 1978SGnot in their usual nameBritish violinist
- Edison Chenb. 1980CAnot in their usual nameHong Kong singer, actor, and fashion designer
- Priscilla Chanb. 1985USnot in their usual nameAmerican pediatrician and philanthropist
- Kelly Marie Tranb. 1989USAmerican actress (born 1989)
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 61 sources across 28 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 223K | #101 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 188K | #132 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 136K | #188 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 6.5K | #120 |
| NO Norway | SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891) | 2025 | 3.3K | — |
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 629 | #6,649 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 629 | #6,640 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
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
- How do you pronounce Tran?
- A machine transcription gives /ʈaŋ˧˥/ (IPA) for Vietnamese.
- What does the name Tran mean?
- Recorded meaning: aus mnd. trane/tra(h)n ‘Träne’; Übername zu einer persönlichen Eigenschaft (weinerlich/empfindsam).
- In which country does Tran have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 3.3 million people named Tran in Vietnam, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled tran.
- How common is the name Tran?
- In the United States, the national register counted 188,498 people named Tran in 2010, about 1 in 1.8 thousand residents.
- How common is Tran compared with other names?
- In Vietnam, Tran is the 2nd most common surname of 62,915 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Tran?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/tranThe 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, “Tran” — the 2nd most common surname in Vietnam. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.