Thao
A feminine Vietnamese name meaning "precious gem" or "jadeite".
Name Census estimates that about 1,180 living Americans carry the first name Thao. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Thao today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thao births was 1984 (73 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thao. 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 Thao with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 290,470 Americans
Peak year
1984
73 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
1999 SSA rank
#11,441
Tracked since 1975
Census
Thao in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,991 people with the first name Thao, which placed it at #2,197 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
#2,197
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,991 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
98.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Thao
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thao is Asian/Pacific Islander at 98.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.8%) and White (0.8%). 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 Thao 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 Thao at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander98.0% · 11,756
- Two or more races0.8% · 100
- White0.8% · 91
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 29
- Black or African American0.1% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Thao
Thao leans heavily female at 84.4% of total registrations, but 192 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Thao as a male name
- Ranked #11,441 in 1999
- 5 male births in 1999
- Peak: 1989 (16 births)
Thao as a female name
- Ranked #18,210 in 2017
- 5 female births in 2017
- Peak: 1984 (58 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thao leans strongly female. 10,133 people counted with this name were female (84.5%), compared with 1,860 male bearers (15.5%).
Popularity
Thao: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Thao from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 532 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
Thao 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 Thao during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Thaos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Thao, while Washington, Minnesota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 82 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Thao
The name Thao has its roots in the Vietnamese language and culture. It is believed to have originated during the medieval period in Vietnam, possibly as early as the 12th century.
Thao is derived from the Vietnamese word "thảo," which means "grass" or "plant." In ancient Vietnamese culture, names were often inspired by natural elements, reflecting the close connection between the people and their environment.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Thao can be found in the "Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư" (Complete Annals of Đại Việt), a historical text compiled in the 15th century. This text mentions a woman named Thao who lived during the Lý Dynasty (1009–1225).
In the 13th century, a famous Vietnamese general named Trần Hưng Đạo (1228–1300) had a wife named Phạm Thị Thao. She played a significant role in supporting her husband's military campaigns against the Mongol invasions.
Another notable figure named Thao was Nguyễn Thị Thao (1839–1917), a Vietnamese patriot and leader of the Đồng Khánh Scholars' Revolt against French colonial rule in the late 19th century.
In the 20th century, Võ Thị Thao (1907–1985) was a prominent Vietnamese writer and poet, known for her works that explored the themes of love, nature, and national identity.
More recently, Lê Thị Thao (born 1984) is a Vietnamese badminton player who has won multiple international titles, including the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games.
While the name Thao has its roots in Vietnam, it has also been adopted in other Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and Laos, where it may have slightly different meanings or variations in spelling.
People
Thao + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thao 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
Thao: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thao?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,180 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thao 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 290,470 US residents.
Is Thao a common name?
We classify Thao as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,232 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thao most popular?
The single biggest year for Thao was 1984, when 73 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thao is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Thao in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,991 people with the name Thao, or 3.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,197 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 Thao 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 Thao?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thao leans strongly female. 10,133 people counted with this name were female (84.5%), compared with 1,860 male bearers (15.5%). 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 Thao?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thao is Asian/Pacific Islander at 98.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.8%) and White (0.8%). 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 Thao most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Thao in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.0% (11,756 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 Thao in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Thao a female name?
Yes, 84.4% of people registered as Thao 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 Thao still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Thao 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 Thao 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 Thao?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.