Vuong
A Vietnamese masculine name of uncertain meaning, potentially related to royalty or nobility.
Name Census estimates that about 174 living Americans carry the first name Vuong. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Vuong today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vuong births was 1985 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vuong. 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 Vuong with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
174
~ 1 in 1,969,853 Americans
Peak year
1985
15 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2022 SSA rank
#12,233
Tracked since 1979
Census
Vuong in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,411 people with the first name Vuong, which placed it at #9,728 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
#9,728
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,411 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
98.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vuong
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vuong is Asian/Pacific Islander at 98.2%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Two or More Races (0.5%). 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 Vuong 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 Vuong at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander98.2% · 1,385
- White0.9% · 12
- Two or more races0.5% · 7
- Black or African American0.3% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 3
Popularity
Vuong: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vuong from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 94 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
Vuong 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 Vuong 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 Vuong
The name Vuong has its origins in the Vietnamese language and culture. It is believed to be derived from the Middle Chinese words "Wang" or "Vuong," which referred to a king or monarch.
In Vietnam, the name Vuong has a long and storied history, with roots that can be traced back to the ancient kingdom of Van Lang, which was established around the 7th century BC. The name was often associated with royalty and was bestowed upon princes and kings.
One of the earliest known references to the name Vuong can be found in the Annals of the Lê Dynasty, a historical text that chronicles the reign of the Lê kings from the 15th to the 18th century. In this text, there are numerous mentions of individuals with the name Vuong who held positions of power and influence.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Vuong. One of the most famous was Vuong Thien Tuan (1828-1895), a Vietnamese scholar and mandarin who served as a high-ranking official during the Nguyen Dynasty. He was renowned for his expertise in Confucian studies and his contributions to Vietnamese literature.
Another prominent figure was Vuong Thua Vu (1896-1976), a Vietnamese general who played a crucial role in the country's struggle for independence from French colonial rule. He went on to serve as the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam from 1965 to 1967.
In the realm of art and culture, Vuong Duc (1676-1751) was a celebrated Vietnamese poet and calligrapher who was highly regarded for his mastery of the Chinese writing system and his contributions to the development of the Nom script, which was used to write the Vietnamese language.
Moving to more recent times, Vuong Phan (1914-2009) was a prominent Vietnamese-American author and poet who wrote extensively about the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. His works, which explored themes of identity, displacement, and cultural assimilation, have been widely acclaimed and translated into several languages.
Finally, Vuong Tan Ngo (born 1988) is a contemporary Vietnamese-American poet and essayist who rose to prominence with the publication of his critically acclaimed poetry collection "Night Sky with Exit Wounds" in 2016. His work, which delves into themes of sexuality, immigration, and the complexities of the Vietnamese-American experience, has garnered numerous accolades, including the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize.
People
Vuong + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vuong as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vuong: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vuong?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 174 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vuong 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 1,969,853 US residents.
Is Vuong a common name?
We classify Vuong as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 180 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vuong most popular?
The single biggest year for Vuong was 1985, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vuong is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vuong in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,411 people with the name Vuong, or 0.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,728 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 Vuong 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 Vuong?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vuong leans strongly male. 1,150 people counted with this name were male (81.8%), compared with 256 female bearers (18.2%). 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 Vuong?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vuong is Asian/Pacific Islander at 98.2%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Two or More Races (0.5%). 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 Vuong most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Vuong in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.2% (1,385 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 Vuong in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vuong a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vuong 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 Vuong still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vuong 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 Vuong 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 Vuong?
You can see how many Americans are named Vuong on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.