Yang
surname · Latin script
Meaning: (i) from a Korean clan name; (ii) from Yang, an ancient Chinese state
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/jæŋ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Yang is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Antigua & Barbuda it is the 9th most common surname.
- CNChina≈1 in 154(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 886
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 1.4K
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 Yang 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)
- #695 (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 535 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 154 (inferred from the name graph)
≈9,000,000 people, est.
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled 양 in KR South Korea and Young in ES Spain.
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) from a Korean clan name; (ii) from Yang, an ancient Chinese state.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Yang 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 | #522 | ≈9,000,000 est. | ≈1 in 154 | — | Yang | 176 |
| KR South Korea | #21 | 530,554as 양 | 1 in 98 | 545K | 양 | 245 |
| US United States | #424 | 484,447as Young | 1 in 687 | 484K | Yang | 535 |
| MY Malaysia | #244 | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | — | Yang | 101 |
| CA Canada | #254 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.5K | — | Yang | 265 |
| SG Singapore | #81 | ≈7,000 est. | ≈1 in 886 | — | Yang | 155 |
| ES Spain | — | 5,824 | 1 in 8.6K | 5.8K | Young | 69 |
| VC St. Vincent & Grenadines | — | 430as Young | 1 in 236 | 430 | — | 1 |
| AG Antigua & Barbuda | #9 | — | — | — | Yang | 4 |
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; KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants; KOSIS — 2015 census surnames; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Electoral Office of St Vincent & the Grenadines — Final Voters List (Nov 2025). 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)
Yang 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.
‘Model’ or ‘pattern’. Yanlin J; also 9 ‘Swallow forest’. Yan ‘swallow’ is also an old word for Beijing, so the name may also mean ‘Beijing forest’, denoting a person born in Beijing.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with bright, hot, masculine, etc. elements of the natural world.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In och, ‘Voluminous’ (flow of water, i.e. rising river)
as a wordSchuessler, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (2007)
In cdo, as weather ； to dry iu tho lOOS YONG. sun : 、yong kol\ the place of sun- risini:, the orient. Used in the names of the willow and 8orae other trees : \yong sm^ a sort of banian^ ficus religiosuR ； COM" \yong Hw^ tho wil- low ； ^iyong ^m?//, a tree yield- ing a iruit like tlio arbutus; yong ^mui fih^ong^ ft bubo ；
as a wordAn Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect
In Malay, An article that denotes a noun with the connecting description.
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)
- Yang Kyoungjongb. 1920USEthnic Korean soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army, Soviet Red Army, and German Wehrmacht
- Chen Ning Yangb. 1922CNChinese physicist (1922–2025)
- Bolo Yeungb. 1946CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor
- Edward Yangb. 1947TWTaiwanese film director and screenwriter (1947-2007)
- Philémon Yangb. 1947CMCameroonian politician, former Prime minister of Cameroon
- Michelle Yeohb. 1962MYnot in their usual nameMalaysian actress (born 1962)
- Yang Liweib. 1965CNChinese astronaut
- Jerry Yangb. 1968USfounder of Yahoo!
- Andrew Yangb. 1975USAmerican entrepreneur, attorney and political candidate (born 1975)
- Yang Yangb. 1991CNChinese actor
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 78 sources across 40 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KR South Korea | KOSIS — 2015 census surnames | 2015 | 545K | #22 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 139K | #199 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 106K | #290 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 73K | #397 |
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 5.8K | #928 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 5.8K | #928 |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- 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 Yang mean, and where does it come from?
- (i) from a Korean clan name; (ii) from Yang, an ancient Chinese state. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- In which country does Yang have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 9.0 million people named Yang in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled yang.
- What are other forms of the name Yang?
- In the etymology graph, Dương is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Yang?
- A machine transcription gives /jæŋ/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Yang?
- In Spain, the national register counted 5,824 people named Yang, about 1 in 8.6 thousand residents.
- How common is Yang compared with other names?
- In China, Yang is the 522nd most common surname of 142,871 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Yang?
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/yangThe 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, “Yang” — the 522nd most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.