Yuan
A feminine Mandarin Chinese name meaning "circular" or "round".
Name Census estimates that about 195 living Americans carry the first name Yuan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Yuan today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yuan births was 2024 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yuan. 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 Yuan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
195
~ 1 in 1,757,715 Americans
Peak year
2024
19 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,430
Tracked since 1984
Census
Yuan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,920 people with the first name Yuan, which placed it at #3,498 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
#3,498
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,920 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
93.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yuan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yuan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 93.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.8%) and Hispanic (2.2%). 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 Yuan 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 Yuan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander93.7% · 5,547
- White2.8% · 165
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 128
- Black or African American0.8% · 49
- Two or more races0.5% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Yuan
Yuan leans heavily male at 81.2% of total registrations, but 37 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yuan as a male name
- Ranked #6,430 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (14 births)
Yuan as a female name
- Ranked #17,572 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yuan on both sides of the split. Of the 5,921 people counted with this name, 2,666 were male (45.0%) and 3,255 were female (55.0%).
Popularity
Yuan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yuan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 91 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yuan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yuan 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 Yuan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yuans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yuan
The name Yuan has its origins in Chinese culture, deriving from the Mandarin Chinese word 'yuan' which means 'origin' or 'primary'. It traces back to ancient China, where it was often used as a surname or family name. The earliest recorded examples of Yuan as a given name date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), when it became more common as a personal name.
In Chinese philosophy and literature, the name Yuan is associated with concepts of primordial unity, the source of all things, and the origins of the universe. It appears in several classical texts, including the I Ching (Book of Changes) and the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, where it is used to represent the ineffable, eternal, and unconditioned aspects of the Tao.
One of the earliest and most famous historical figures with the name Yuan was Yuan Xingchu (584-644 AD), a renowned Tang Dynasty calligrapher and scholar. Yuan Mei (1716-1797), a poet and scholar from the Qing Dynasty, was another notable figure who contributed significantly to Chinese literature and philosophy.
In the realm of Chinese Buddhism, Yuan Hongdao (1568-1610) was a prominent monk and poet who played a crucial role in reviving the Chan (Zen) tradition during the Ming Dynasty. Yuan Zhen (779-831 AD), a renowned poet and essayist of the Tang Dynasty, is also remembered for his influential works.
Another historical figure with the name Yuan was Yuan Shikai (1859-1916), a prominent military leader and politician who briefly served as the first President of the Republic of China after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
While the name Yuan has ancient roots in Chinese culture, it has also gained popularity in other parts of the world due to the global influence of Chinese language and traditions.
People
Yuan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yuan 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
Yuan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yuan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 195 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yuan 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 1,757,715 US residents.
Is Yuan a common name?
We classify Yuan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 197 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yuan most popular?
The single biggest year for Yuan was 2024, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yuan is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yuan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,920 people with the name Yuan, or 1.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,498 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 Yuan 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 Yuan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yuan on both sides of the split. Of the 5,921 people counted with this name, 2,666 were male (45.0%) and 3,255 were female (55.0%). 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 Yuan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yuan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 93.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.8%) and Hispanic (2.2%). 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 Yuan most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Yuan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.7% (5,547 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 Yuan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yuan a male name?
Yes, 81.2% of people registered as Yuan 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 Yuan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yuan 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 Yuan 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 Yuan?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Yuan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.