Chea
A feminine name of Khmer origin meaning "prosperous".
Name Census estimates that about 90 living Americans carry the first name Chea. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Chea today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chea births was 1987 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chea. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Chea. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
90
~ 1 in 3,808,382 Americans
Peak year
1987
8 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
1995 SSA rank
#9,077
Tracked since 1971
Gender
Gender distribution for Chea
Chea leans heavily female at 84.2% of total registrations, but 15 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Chea as a male name
- Ranked #9,077 in 1995
- 5 male births in 1995
- Peak: 1977 (5 births)
Chea as a female name
- Ranked #16,640 in 2004
- 5 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1987 (8 births)
Popularity
Chea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chea from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 38 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chea by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Chea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Chea
The name Chea originates from the Khmer language, which is the official language of Cambodia. It is believed to have derived from the old Khmer word "chea," which means "victory" or "success." This name has been in use within the Cambodian culture for centuries.
In ancient Khmer literature and inscriptions dating back to the 7th century, there are references to people bearing the name Chea. Some scholars believe that this name was particularly popular among the ruling class and nobility during the Khmer Empire, which flourished from the 9th to the 15th century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Chea can be found in the Khmer inscriptions from the Angkor Wat temple complex, which was built in the early 12th century. These inscriptions mention a high-ranking official named Chea Khiev, who served under King Suryavarman II, the ruler who commissioned the construction of Angkor Wat.
Throughout Cambodian history, there have been several notable individuals bearing the name Chea. One such figure was Chea Vat, a revered Buddhist monk who lived in the 16th century and was known for his teachings and contributions to Khmer literature.
Another famous Chea was Chea Sim, a prominent Cambodian politician and activist who played a significant role in the struggle for independence from French colonial rule in the mid-20th century. He was born in 1905 and was a co-founder of the Democratic Party, which later became the Cambodian People's Party.
In the realm of arts and culture, Chea Sarin was a celebrated Cambodian painter and sculptor who lived from 1925 to 2015. He is renowned for his depictions of traditional Khmer life and for reviving the art of lacquer painting in Cambodia after the devastating Khmer Rouge regime.
Another notable figure was Chea Vichea, a prominent Cambodian labor activist who fought for workers' rights and was assassinated in 2004. His death sparked widespread protests and calls for justice, highlighting the ongoing struggles for human rights and democracy in Cambodia.
While the name Chea has its roots in Khmer culture, it has also been adopted by people of Cambodian descent living in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States, Canada, and Australia, where there are significant Cambodian diaspora communities.
People
Chea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chea as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Chea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 90 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chea going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,808,382 US residents.
Is Chea a common name?
We classify Chea as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 95 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chea most popular?
The single biggest year for Chea was 1987, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chea is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Chea a female name?
Yes, 84.2% of people registered as Chea in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.