Yixuan
A Chinese name meaning "eternal, flowing stream" or "distant riverbank".
Name Census estimates that about 38 living Americans carry the first name Yixuan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Yixuan today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yixuan births was 2014 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yixuan. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Yixuan. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
38
~ 1 in 9,019,851 Americans
Peak year
2014
10 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2019 SSA rank
#14,054
Tracked since 2014
Census
Yixuan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 919 people with the first name Yixuan, which placed it at #13,223 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
#13,223
National first-name rank
People counted
919
919 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
88.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yixuan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yixuan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.5%. The next largest groups are White (8.7%) and Black (1.4%). 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 Yixuan 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 Yixuan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander88.5% · 813
- White8.7% · 80
- Black or African American1.4% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 8
- Two or more races0.5% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Yixuan
Yixuan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 38 total registrations, 10 (26.3%) were male and 28 (73.7%) were female.
Yixuan as a male name
- Ranked #14,054 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2015 (5 births)
Yixuan as a female name
- Ranked #17,914 in 2019
- 5 female births in 2019
- Peak: 2014 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yixuan on both sides of the split. Of the 926 people counted with this name, 298 were male (32.2%) and 628 were female (67.8%).
Popularity
Yixuan: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Yixuan 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 Yixuan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 10 | 28 | 38 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Yixuan
Yixuan is a Chinese given name that originated from the Chinese language. The name is derived from the combination of two Chinese characters – "Yi" (意) meaning "idea" or "intention," and "Xuan" (玄) meaning "profound" or "abstruse." Together, the name Yixuan can be interpreted as "profound meaning" or "deep intention."
The earliest recorded use of the name Yixuan dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), where it was primarily used as a literary name or a pseudonym for scholars and writers. During this period, the name was often associated with intellectual pursuits and philosophical contemplation.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Yixuan was a renowned Tang Dynasty poet and calligrapher, Yixuan Cheng (659-713 AD). His poems and calligraphic works are still celebrated today for their exceptional artistry and profound insights.
In the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), the name Yixuan gained further popularity among the literati and scholarly circles. One notable figure from this era was Yixuan Huang (1025-1094 AD), a renowned Neo-Confucian philosopher and writer who made significant contributions to the development of Confucian thought.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), the name Yixuan was also associated with religious and spiritual pursuits. Yixuan Wang (1524-1596 AD) was a prominent Buddhist monk and scholar who authored several influential works on Buddhist philosophy and practice.
In more recent history, the name Yixuan has been carried by various scholars, writers, and artists. Yixuan Qian (1858-1926 AD) was a prominent Chinese linguist and philologist who made significant contributions to the study of the Chinese language and its scripts.
Another notable figure with the name Yixuan was the Chinese painter and calligrapher, Yixuan Zhang (1924-2004 AD). His works are renowned for their innovative style and fusion of traditional Chinese techniques with modern artistic expressions.
While the name Yixuan has its origins in ancient China, it continues to be used in modern times as a given name for both males and females, reflecting its enduring cultural significance and literary associations.
People
Yixuan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yixuan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yixuan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yixuan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 38 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yixuan 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 9,019,851 US residents.
Is Yixuan a common name?
We classify Yixuan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 50.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yixuan most popular?
The single biggest year for Yixuan was 2014, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yixuan is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yixuan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 919 people with the name Yixuan, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,223 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 Yixuan 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 Yixuan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yixuan on both sides of the split. Of the 926 people counted with this name, 298 were male (32.2%) and 628 were female (67.8%). 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 Yixuan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yixuan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.5%. The next largest groups are White (8.7%) and Black (1.4%). 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 Yixuan most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Yixuan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.5% (813 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 Yixuan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yixuan a female name?
Yes, 73.7% of people registered as Yixuan 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 Yixuan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yixuan 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 Yixuan 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 common is the name Yixuan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.