Jin
A masculine name of Korean and Chinese origin meaning "true/real/genuine".
Name Census estimates that about 1,747 living Americans carry the first name Jin. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Jin today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jin births was 2023 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jin. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 196,196 Americans
Peak year
2023
65 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,602
Tracked since 1961
Census
Jin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 14,298 people with the first name Jin, which placed it at #1,954 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
#1,954
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
14,298 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
94.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jin is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Two or More Races (1.5%). 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 Jin 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 Jin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander94.7% · 13,546
- White2.2% · 315
- Two or more races1.5% · 221
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 147
- Black or African American0.4% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Jin
Jin is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,789 total registrations, 1,404 (78.5%) were male and 385 (21.5%) were female.
Jin as a male name
- Ranked #2,602 in 2024
- 51 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (65 births)
Jin as a female name
- Ranked #10,608 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jin on both sides of the split. Of the 14,306 people counted with this name, 7,447 were male (52.1%) and 6,859 were female (47.9%).
Popularity
Jin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jin from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 432 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Jin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jin 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 Jin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Jin, while Maryland, Florida, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jin
The name Jin is derived from the Chinese language and has its origins dating back to ancient times. It is a unisex name that can be used for both males and females.
Jin is a Chinese word that means "gold" or "golden," representing wealth, prosperity, and radiance. The name is believed to have been used as early as the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC – 1046 BC) in ancient China.
In Chinese mythology, Jin is associated with the Golden Crow, a sacred bird that was believed to possess divine powers. The name Jin is also found in various Chinese literary works and historical records from the past.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jin is Jin Xuan, a famous calligrapher and scholar who lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 AD – 220 AD). Jin Xuan was renowned for her exceptional calligraphic skills and played a significant role in the development of the cursive script in China.
Another notable figure with the name Jin is Jin Hui, a Buddhist monk who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618 AD – 907 AD). Jin Hui was a prominent figure in the Chan (Zen) Buddhist tradition and is remembered for his teachings on the nature of enlightenment.
During the Song Dynasty (960 AD – 1279 AD), Jin Shengtan was a famous literary critic and scholar known for his insightful commentaries on classical Chinese literature, particularly the works of Wu Cheng'en's novel "Journey to the West."
In more recent history, Jin Yong (1924 – 2018), whose real name was Louis Cha, was a renowned Hong Kong novelist and martial arts novelist. His wuxia novels, which combine elements of Chinese history, folklore, and martial arts, have captivated readers across Asia and beyond.
Jin Xing (born 1967) is a contemporary Chinese dancer, choreographer, and the founder of the Jin Xing Dance Theatre. She is widely recognized as a trailblazer in the Chinese artistic community, breaking barriers and challenging traditional gender norms.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Jin, a name that carries a rich cultural significance and has been associated with various fields, from literature and art to religion and philosophy.
People
Jin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jin as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,747 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jin 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 196,196 US residents.
Is Jin a common name?
We classify Jin as "Rare". It ranks above 93.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,789 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jin most popular?
The single biggest year for Jin was 2023, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jin is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 14,298 people with the name Jin, or 4.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,954 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 Jin 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 Jin?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jin on both sides of the split. Of the 14,306 people counted with this name, 7,447 were male (52.1%) and 6,859 were female (47.9%). 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 Jin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jin is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Two or More Races (1.5%). 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 Jin most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Jin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.7% (13,546 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 Jin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jin a male name?
Yes, 78.5% of people registered as Jin in the SSA data are male. 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 Jin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jin 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 Jin 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 called Jin?
You can see how many people share the name Jin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.