Yutong
An elegant Chinese name meaning "heavenly traveler" or "to travel through the universe".
Name Census estimates that about 52 living Americans carry the first name Yutong. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Yutong today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yutong births was 2016 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yutong. 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 Yutong with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Yutong. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
52
~ 1 in 6,591,430 Americans
Peak year
2016
12 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,241
Tracked since 2014
Census
Yutong in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 951 people with the first name Yutong, which placed it at #12,880 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
#12,880
National first-name rank
People counted
951
951 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
90.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yutong
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yutong is Asian/Pacific Islander at 90.3%. The next largest groups are White (7.5%) and Black (1.6%). 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 Yutong 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 Yutong at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander90.3% · 859
- White7.5% · 71
- Black or African American1.6% · 15
- Two or more races0.4% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 2
Popularity
Yutong: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yutong from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 46 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yutong 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 Yutong during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yutongs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yutong
The name Yutong is of Chinese origin, derived from the Mandarin language. It dates back to ancient times and is composed of two characters: Yu (渝) and Tong (同).
Yu is a traditional Chinese character that represents the city of Chongqing, located in southwestern China. It has been used as a place name for over 3,000 years, appearing in historical records and texts from the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC - 256 BC).
Tong, on the other hand, means "together" or "unity" in Mandarin. It is a common character found in many Chinese names and words, reflecting the importance of harmony and unity in traditional Chinese culture.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Yutong can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 907 AD), where it was used as a personal name for both men and women. During this period, China experienced a golden age of literature, art, and cultural advancement, which may have influenced the popularity of the name.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Yutong. One of the earliest was Yutong Xingde (654 AD - 726 AD), a renowned Buddhist monk and calligrapher during the Tang Dynasty. His calligraphic works are highly regarded and have been preserved in various collections.
Another prominent individual with the name Yutong was Yutong Tongji (1618 - 1704), a Qing Dynasty scholar and writer who authored several influential works on literature and philosophy. His contributions to the development of Chinese literary criticism and theory are widely recognized.
In more recent times, Yutong Zhao (1925 - 2022) was a respected Chinese physicist and academic. He made significant contributions to the fields of theoretical physics and quantum mechanics, and served as the president of the University of Science and Technology of China from 1984 to 1991.
Yutong Xiao (1916 - 1999) was a renowned Chinese painter and calligrapher, renowned for her mastery of traditional Chinese brush painting techniques. Her works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums around the world, and she is considered one of the most influential Chinese artists of the 20th century.
Lastly, Yutong Yao (born 1987) is a contemporary Chinese actress and singer. She has starred in several popular television dramas and films, and has released several music albums, establishing herself as a versatile entertainer in the Chinese entertainment industry.
People
Yutong + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yutong 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
Yutong: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yutong?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yutong 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 6,591,430 US residents.
Is Yutong a common name?
We classify Yutong as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 52 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yutong most popular?
The single biggest year for Yutong was 2016, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yutong is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yutong in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 951 people with the name Yutong, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,880 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 Yutong 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 Yutong?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yutong on both sides of the split. Of the 956 people counted with this name, 263 were male (27.5%) and 693 were female (72.5%). 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 Yutong?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yutong is Asian/Pacific Islander at 90.3%. The next largest groups are White (7.5%) and Black (1.6%). 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 Yutong most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Yutong in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.3% (859 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 Yutong in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yutong a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yutong 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 Yutong still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yutong 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 Yutong 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 Americans are named Yutong?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.