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
Census
Chea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 476 people with the first name Chea, which placed it at #21,371 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,371
National first-name rank
People counted
476
476 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
55.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chea is Asian/Pacific Islander at 55.0%. The next largest groups are White (19.1%) and Black (17.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Chea described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Chea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander55.0% · 262
- White19.1% · 91
- Black or African American17.0% · 81
- Two or more races4.6% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
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)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Chea on both sides of the split. Of the 474 people counted with this name, 223 were male (47.0%) and 251 were female (53.0%).
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.
How common was Chea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 476 people with the name Chea, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,371 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Chea in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Chea?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Chea on both sides of the split. Of the 474 people counted with this name, 223 were male (47.0%) and 251 were female (53.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Chea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chea is Asian/Pacific Islander at 55.0%. The next largest groups are White (19.1%) and Black (17.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Chea most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Chea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.0% (262 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Chea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Chea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chea in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Chea can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people are named Chea?
Find out how many Americans are named Chea on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.