Tian
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈtjɑn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Tian is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- CNChina≈1 in 1.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 94K
- SGSingapore≈1 in 5.1K
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)
- Sources
- 278 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,200,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.
How Tian is read(measured from records)
Tian is one spelling over 3 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.
- English36%
An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Chinese31%
nonstandard spelling of tiān
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Malay5.4%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Tian in Malay.
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Tian 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | #758 | ≈1,200,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Tian | 161 |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈5,500 est. | ≈1 in 5.9K | — | Tian | 30 |
| US United States | — | 3,547 | 1 in 94K | 6.8K | Tian | 278 |
| TW Taiwan | #577 | ≈2,700 est. | ≈1 in 8.8K | — | Tian | 68 |
| SG Singapore | #758 | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 5.1K | — | Tian | 68 |
| HK Hong Kong | #481 | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 6.8K | — | Tian | 52 |
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. 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)
Tian 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.
In poz-oce-pro, belly, abdomen
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In pns, stomach
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In ilm, belly
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In bfg, the skin and flesh of an animal’s underbelly, breast bone, etc.
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
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)
- Thomas Tien Ken-sinb. 1890CNnot in their usual nameCatholic cardinal (1890-1967)
- Tian Hanb. 1898CNChinese playwright, screenwriter, songwriter (1898-1968)
- Tien Fengb. 1928TWnot in their usual nameChinese actor (1928–2015)
- James Tienb. 1942CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor
- Tian Zhuangzhuangb. 1952CNChinese filmmaker
- Gang Tianb. 1958CNChinese mathematician
- Lily Tienb. 1967TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese actress
- Tian Qingb. 1986CNChinese badminton player
- Valerie Tianb. 1989CAactress
- Jeon Jiheeb. 1992CNnot in their usual nameChinese-born South Korean table tennis player
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 73 sources across 37 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 6.8K | #5,007 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3.5K | #9,195 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.6K | #16,160 |
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 given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname 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
- What does the name Tian mean, and where does it come from?
- An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Tian?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈtjɑn/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Tian have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.2 million people named Tian in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled tian.
- How common is the name Tian?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,547 people named Tian in 2010, about 1 in 94 thousand residents.
- How common is Tian compared with other names?
- In China, Tian is the 758th most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Tian?
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/tianThe 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, “Tian” — the 758th most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.