Thang
A masculine Vietnamese given name with uncertain meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 755 living Americans carry the first name Thang. It is a predominantly male name (96.2% of registrations). The average person named Thang today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thang births was 2016 (49 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thang. 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.
People living today
755
~ 1 in 453,979 Americans
Peak year
2016
49 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,164
Tracked since 1976
Census
Thang in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,397 people with the first name Thang, which placed it at #3,317 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
#3,317
National first-name rank
People counted
6.4K
6,397 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
98.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Thang
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thang is Asian/Pacific Islander at 98.5%. The next largest groups are White (0.6%) and Two or More Races (0.4%). 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 Thang 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 Thang at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander98.5% · 6,300
- White0.6% · 41
- Two or more races0.4% · 23
- Hispanic or Latino0.3% · 20
- Black or African American0.2% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Thang
Thang leans heavily male at 96.2% of total registrations, but 29 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Thang as a male name
- Ranked #4,164 in 2024
- 26 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (44 births)
Thang as a female name
- Ranked #13,324 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2014 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thang leans strongly male. 5,991 people counted with this name were male (93.6%), compared with 407 female bearers (6.4%).
Popularity
Thang: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Thang from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 326 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Thang remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Thang 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 Thang during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Thangs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Oklahoma, California, Indiana recorded the most babies named Thang, while Louisiana, Kentucky, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Thang
The name Thang is derived from the Old Norse word "þang," which means "seaweed" or "kelp." This suggests that the name has its origins among the seafaring Norse people, who inhabited the coastal regions of Scandinavia and Northern Europe during the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries).
Interestingly, the name Thang appears in several ancient Icelandic sagas and Norse legends, often associated with characters or figures connected to the sea or maritime life. For instance, in the Saga of Grettir the Strong, a renowned Icelandic saga from the 13th century, there is a minor character named Thang Oddsson, a fisherman from the Westfjords region of Iceland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Thang dates back to the 10th century, when a Viking chieftain named Thang Haraldsson is mentioned in the Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), a medieval Icelandic manuscript detailing the settlement of Iceland by Norse explorers and their descendants.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Thang. One of the most famous was Thang the Red (c. 950 – 1014), a legendary Viking warrior and explorer from Norway, renowned for his voyages to Greenland and North America, long before the celebrated journey of Leif Erikson.
Another prominent figure was Thang Sigurdsson (c. 1130 – 1195), a Norwegian nobleman and military commander who played a crucial role in the Norwegian Civil War of the late 12th century, supporting the cause of King Sverre Sigurdsson against the Birkebeiner faction.
In the realm of literature, one cannot overlook Thang Oddsson (1857 – 1935), an acclaimed Icelandic poet and novelist, whose works were instrumental in reviving the ancient poetic traditions of the Norse sagas and preserving the cultural heritage of Iceland.
Lastly, it is worth mentioning Thang Gudmundsson (1901 – 1983), a renowned Icelandic explorer and adventurer, who gained fame for his daring expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic regions, following in the footsteps of the Viking explorers of old.
People
Thang + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thang as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Thang: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thang?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 755 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thang 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 453,979 US residents.
Is Thang a common name?
We classify Thang as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 768 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thang most popular?
The single biggest year for Thang was 2016, when 49 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thang is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Thang in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,397 people with the name Thang, or 2.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,317 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 Thang 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 Thang?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thang leans strongly male. 5,991 people counted with this name were male (93.6%), compared with 407 female bearers (6.4%). 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 Thang?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thang is Asian/Pacific Islander at 98.5%. The next largest groups are White (0.6%) and Two or More Races (0.4%). 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 Thang most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Thang in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.5% (6,300 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 Thang in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Thang a male name?
Yes, 96.2% of people registered as Thang 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 Thang still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Thang 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 Thang 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 Thang?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.