Changa

loc · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Changa is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Tanzania than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Mozambique/Zimbabwe historical name; warrior chief of Monomotapa.

rarermore common
  • GYGuyana1 in 7.4K(measured from records)
  • ZMZambia≈1 in 15K
  • TZTanzania≈1 in 40K

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.

Tanzania (inferred from the name graph)

≈1,500 people, est.

Sources
37 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 7.4K (inferred from the name graph)

Guyana

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Chang'A in TZ Tanzania.

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)

Mozambique/Zimbabwe historical name; warrior chief of Monomotapa

Sources 1

  • African Names

Where in the world(measured from records)

Changa 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 Changa is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
TZ Tanzania≈1,500 est.≈1 in 40K—Chang'A5
ZM Zambia≈1,200 est.≈1 in 15K1—4
IN India3221 in 4.1M322—2
US United States≈120 est.≈1 in 2.9M6—19
GY Guyana1011 in 7.4K101——
NG Nigeria≈98 est.≈1 in 2.2Mlisted——
ES Spain401 in 1.3M40—15

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: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present); ECZ 2021 Councillor Elections — candidate results. 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)

Changa is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Pakistan, Tanzania

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Chang'A

  • Swahili surname15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Tanzania, Kenya, Philippines, United States

    Languages: Swahili, English

    Also written Chang'A, Chang-A, Chan'Ga, Khanga

  • French surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Tanzania

    Also written Chang'A

  • Thai surname9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand

    Also written จะงะ, จะหงะ, จะง๊ะ, จะงา, จะง่ะ

  • Indonesian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Tanzania

    Also written Chang'A

34 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)

Changa is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • Strong as iron

    as a nameThe book of African names

  • In English, A smokable blend of dimethyltryptamine and an MAOI to extend the drug experience in duration and intensity.

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

  • In Swahili, young (in the early part of life or growth)

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

  • In Spanish, job of a porter

    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.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 15 sources across 9 countries.

Official registers attesting Changa
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls—322#12,717
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls—147#17,477
GY GuyanaGuyana — Official List of Electors July 20252025101#524
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—40#51,920
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—40#51,690
ZM ZambiaECZ 2021 Councillor Elections — candidate results20211#42
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, voter-file supplement (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 1

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007

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 does the name Changa mean, and where does it come from?
Mozambique/Zimbabwe historical name; warrior chief of Monomotapa Recorded by African Names.
In which country does Changa have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 1.5 thousand people named Changa in Tanzania, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled chang'a.
Where is Changa most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Changa is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 7.4 thousand people — even though Tanzania holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Changa?
In India, the national register counted 322 people named Changa, about 1 in 4.1 million residents.

What do you want to know about Changa?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/changa

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 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, “Changa”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Changa parses inside a full name →