Zhang

surname · Latin script

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

Zhang is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Hong Kong it is the 18th most common surname. In Chinese, recorded as nonstandard spelling of zhāng.

rarermore common
  • CNChina≈1 in 73(inferred from the name graph)
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 749
  • TWTaiwan≈1 in 928

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 Zhang 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.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈19,000,000 people, est.

#552 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

5 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
491 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 73 (inferred from the name graph)

China, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

ZhangLatin(measured from records)
ЧжанCyrillic(measured from records)
ซางThai(measured from records)
ΤσανγκGreek(measured from records)
ჟანგGeorgian(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Chang in TW Taiwan.

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)

(i) ‘stretch open a bow’; (ii) ‘person from Zhang’, an area in present-day Shandong.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

How Zhang is read(measured from records)

Zhang 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.

  • Chinese43%

    nonstandard spelling of zhāng

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

  • English32%

    (i) ‘stretch open a bow’; (ii) ‘person from Zhang’, an area in present-day Shandong.

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

    A traditional Chinese unit of length, 10 Chinese feet or ¹/₁₅₀ Chinese mile.

    as a wordkaikki.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)

Zhang 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 Zhang is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China#227≈19,000,000 est.≈1 in 73—Zhang275
US United States#28781,939as Chang1 in 4.1K122KZhang491
HK Hong Kong#18≈50,000 est.≈1 in 146—Zhang130
TW Taiwan#96≈25,000 est.≈1 in 928—Chang235
AU Australia#44≈25,000 est.≈1 in 1K—Zhang262
ES Spain—13,2011 in 3.8K13KZhang105
SG Singapore#24≈8,300 est.≈1 in 749—Zhang142

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; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal). 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)

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

  • French surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, China, United States, Brazil

    Languages: French, Portuguese, Catalan

    Also written Zhāng

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Zhāng

  • Danish surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in China, Denmark, United States, Sweden

    Languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian

    Also written Zhâng

  • Indonesian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in China, Indonesia, United States, Malaysia

    Also written Žhãng

  • Polish surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in China, Poland, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Zhāng

  • Croatian surname23 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in China, United States, Croatia, Bulgaria

    Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovenian

    Also written Джанг, Жанг, Dzang, Jhang, Џанг

83 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)

Zhang is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In och, make long, stretch, extend, draw (a bow)

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

  • In Filipino, a Chinese surname from Mandarin

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

  • In och, tense, tight

    as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)

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)

0500100015002000Zhang Qian, b. 200Jang Sung-taek, b. 1946Zhang Yimou, b. 1950Yitang Zhang, b. 1955Leslie Cheung, b. 1956Maggie Cheung, b. 1964Michael Chang, b. 1972Chang Chen, b. 1976Zhang Ziyi, b. 1979Meng'er Zhang, b. 1987
  • Zhang Qianb. 200CNimperial envoy to the world outside of China in the 2nd century BC
  • Jang Sung-taekb. 1946KPnot in their usual nameNorth Korean government official (1946–2013)
  • Zhang Yimoub. 1950CNChinese filmmaker
  • Yitang Zhangb. 1955CNChinese-born American mathematician
  • Leslie Cheungb. 1956CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong singer and actor (1956–2003)
  • Maggie Cheungb. 1964GBnot in their usual nameHong Kong actress
  • Michael Changb. 1972USnot in their usual nameAmerican tennis player (born 1972)
  • Chang Chenb. 1976TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese actor
  • Zhang Ziyib. 1979CNChinese actress and model
  • Meng'er Zhangb. 1987CNChinese actress

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).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 60 sources across 33 countries.

Official registers attesting Zhang
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020122K#252
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201070K#472
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200033K#963
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—13K#414
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—13K#414

Reference works 3

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

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

Where does the name Zhang come from?
(i) ‘stretch open a bow’; (ii) ‘person from Zhang’, an area in present-day Shandong. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
What does the name Zhang mean?
In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of zhāng
How common is the name Zhang?
In Spain, the national register counted 13,201 people named Zhang, about 1 in 3.8 thousand residents.
How common is Zhang compared with other names?
In China, Zhang is the 227th most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.
In which country does Zhang have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 19 million people named Zhang in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled zhang.

What do you want to know about Zhang?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

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

The same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Zhang” — the 227th most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Zhang parses inside a full name →