Tang

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: A refreshingly sharp aroma or flavor

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

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

Tang is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 48th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • HKHong Kong≈1 in 123(inferred from the name graph)
  • CNChina≈1 in 518
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 689

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)

≈2,700,000 people, est.

Sources
481 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 123 (inferred from the name graph)

Hong Kong, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Chinese dynasty that invaded and eventually conquered Koguryo.

Sources 1

  • Korea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

How Tang is read(measured from records)

Tang is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 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.

  • English53%

    A refreshingly sharp aroma or flavor.

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

  • Chinese17%

    nonstandard spelling of tāng

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

  • Vietnamese6.1%

    a series of events that encompasses a funeral, a burial or cremation, and a period of mourning spanning up to 3 years after the lunar date of death

    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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)

Tang 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 Tang is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China#902≈2,700,000 est.≈1 in 518—Tang119
HK Hong Kong#50≈59,000 est.≈1 in 123—Tang138
MY Malaysia#156≈47,000 est.≈1 in 689—Tang128
US United States—34,9611 in 9.5K43KTang481
CA Canada#388≈9,800 est.≈1 in 3.9K—Tang232
AU Australia#212≈9,500 est.≈1 in 2.7K1Tang246
SG Singapore#48≈8,300 est.≈1 in 749—Tang161

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; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present). 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)

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

  • Chinese surname7 spellings in the group

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

    Also written T'Ang, Tăng, Táng, Tång, Tặng

  • Malay surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, United States

    Languages: Malay, Indonesian

    Also written Tăng

  • a separate name10 spellings in the group

    Also written Tầng, T'Ang, Tằng, Täng, Tâng

  • French surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, China

    Also written Tång, Tăng, Tàng, Täng, Tầng

  • a separate surname23 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, China, United Kingdom, Hong Kong

    Also written Tång, Tầng, Tăng, Täng, Tâng

69 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)

Tang 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 Korean, Chinese dynasty that invaded and eventually conquered Koguryo.

    as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary

  • In Korean, Chinese dynasty; neighbour of Unified Silla

    as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary

  • In Romanian, 1. T angul, mold. 2. Tanghiul, Oprea (17 B 1 242, 364). 3. T anghia, Stan din Muscel (17 B IV 448). Cf. gr.-bizantin Tzanghitzaki (Miklosich - Miller, Actele m-rii Lembo). Tangarea v. Tiglra 5.

    as a nameDictionar Onomastic Rominesc

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)

150016001700180019002000Johann Adam Schall von Bell, b. 1592Deng Xiaoping, b. 1904Deng Yingchao, b. 1904Trường Chinh, b. 1907Kenneth Tsang, b. 1935Dennis Dun, b. 1952Teresa Teng, b. 1953Eric Tsang, b. 1953Derek Tsang, b. 1979Audrey Tang, b. 1981
  • Johann Adam Schall von Bellb. 1592DEnot in their usual nameGerman astronomer and Jesuit missionary active in China (1592-1666)
  • Deng Xiaopingb. 1904CNnot in their usual nameChinese politician and paramount leader from 1978 to 1989
  • Deng Yingchaob. 1904CNnot in their usual nameChinese politician (1904-1992)
  • Trường Chinhb. 1907VNnot in their usual nameformer General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907–1988)
  • Kenneth Tsangb. 1935CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor (1935–2022)
  • Dennis Dunb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
  • Teresa Tengb. 1953TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese ROC singer (1953-1995)
  • Eric Tsangb. 1953CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor, presenter and filmmaker (born 1953)
  • Derek Tsangb. 1979CNnot in their usual nameactor and director from Hong Kong
  • Audrey Tangb. 1981TWTaiwanese activist, politician and free software programmer

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 Tang,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 56 sources across 31 countries.

Official registers attesting Tang
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202043K#794
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201035K#999
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200025K#1,269
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 6

  • 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)
  • Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)

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 Tang come from?
Chinese dynasty that invaded and eventually conquered Koguryo. Recorded by Korea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary.
How do you pronounce Tang?
A machine transcription gives /tæŋ/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Tang mean?
In English, A refreshingly sharp aroma or flavor.
In which country does Tang have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 2.7 million people named Tang in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled tang.
How common is the name Tang?
In the United States, the national register counted 34,961 people named Tang in 2010, about 1 in 9.5 thousand residents.
How common is Tang compared with other names?
In China, Tang is the 902nd most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Tang?

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

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, “Tang” — the 902nd most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Tang parses inside a full name →