Trang
An East Asian feminine name meaning "polite" or "elegant".
Name Census estimates that about 915 living Americans carry the first name Trang. It is a predominantly female name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Trang today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Trang births was 1982 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Trang. 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 Trang with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
915
~ 1 in 374,595 Americans
Peak year
1982
74 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
1984 SSA rank
#4,938
Tracked since 1975
Census
Trang in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,514 people with the first name Trang, which placed it at #2,260 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
#2,260
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,514 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Trang
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trang is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.8%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). 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 Trang 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 Trang at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.8% · 11,258
- White0.9% · 105
- Two or more races0.9% · 99
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 28
- Black or African American0.2% · 24
Gender
Gender distribution for Trang
Out of the 963 babies given the name Trang since 1880, 99.2% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Trang as a male name
- Ranked #4,938 in 1984
- 8 male births in 1984
- Peak: 1984 (8 births)
Trang as a female name
- Ranked #16,616 in 2011
- 6 female births in 2011
- Peak: 1982 (74 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trang leans strongly female. 10,998 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 524 male bearers (4.5%).
Popularity
Trang: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Trang 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 531 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
Trang 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 Trang during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Trangs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Trang, while Kansas, Louisiana, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 102 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Trang
The name Trang has its origins in the Vietnamese language and culture. It is a relatively modern name, with records showing its use dating back to the 19th century. The name is thought to be derived from the Vietnamese word "trang", which means "bright" or "shining". It is a unisex name, given to both boys and girls in Vietnam.
One of the earliest known mentions of the name Trang can be found in the 1879 novel "The Novels of Vietnamese Society" by Nguyen Tru Hieu. In this work, one of the characters is named Trang, suggesting that the name was in use during the late 19th century in Vietnam.
The first recorded individual with the name Trang appears to be Trang Cong Hien (1879-1942), a Vietnamese writer and poet who was active during the early 20th century. Hien published several collections of poetry and was known for his works that celebrated the beauty of Vietnam's natural landscapes.
Another notable figure with the name Trang was Trang Dinh (1897-1964), a Vietnamese politician who served as the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam from 1954 to 1963. Dinh played a significant role in the early years of the Vietnam War and was a key figure in the negotiations that led to the Geneva Accords of 1954.
In the field of art, Trang Le (1911-1980) was a prominent Vietnamese painter and sculptor. Le is known for her vibrant paintings that depicted scenes from daily life in Vietnam, as well as her sculptures that were heavily influenced by traditional Vietnamese art forms.
Trang Thi (1929-1986) was a Vietnamese writer and poet who gained recognition for her works that explored themes of love, loss, and the struggles of women in Vietnamese society. Her poetry collections, such as "Flowers of the Night" and "Voices from the Past", were widely acclaimed and continue to be studied in Vietnamese literature courses.
Trang Van Dinh (1956-present) is a contemporary Vietnamese-American author and academic. Dinh is best known for his novel "We Should Never Meet", which won the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2003. He currently teaches at the University of Southern California and has received numerous awards and accolades for his literary works.
While the name Trang has its roots in Vietnam, it has gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly among Vietnamese diaspora communities. The name continues to be widely used in Vietnam today and has become a well-recognized Vietnamese name globally.
People
Trang + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Trang 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
Trang: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Trang?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 915 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Trang 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 374,595 US residents.
Is Trang a common name?
We classify Trang as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 963 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Trang most popular?
The single biggest year for Trang was 1982, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Trang is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Trang in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,514 people with the name Trang, or 3.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,260 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 Trang 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 Trang?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trang leans strongly female. 10,998 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 524 male bearers (4.5%). 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 Trang?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trang is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.8%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). 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 Trang most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Trang in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.8% (11,258 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 Trang in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Trang a female name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Trang 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 Trang still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Trang 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 Trang 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 have Trang as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.