Zheng
A Chinese masculine name meaning "upright" or "proper".
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Zheng. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zheng today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zheng births was 2002 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zheng. 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 Zheng with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Zheng. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
2002
6 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2018 SSA rank
#14,086
Tracked since 2002
Census
Zheng in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,111 people with the first name Zheng, which placed it at #5,497 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
#5,497
National first-name rank
People counted
3.1K
3,111 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zheng
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zheng is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.2%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Hispanic (0.4%). 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 Zheng 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 Zheng at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.2% · 3,024
- White1.9% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 11
- Two or more races0.4% · 11
- Black or African American0.2% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 1
Popularity
Zheng: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zheng from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zheng 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 Zheng 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 Zheng
The given name Zheng has its origins in Chinese culture and language. It is a romanized spelling derived from the Chinese characters 鄭 or 郑. These characters can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC) in ancient China.
The name Zheng is believed to have originated from the name of a feudal state called Zheng during the Zhou Dynasty. This state was located in present-day Henan Province in central China. The name Zheng was likely initially used as a surname or clan name by the ruling family of this state.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zheng can be found in the historical text "Records of the Grand Historian" (Shiji) by Sima Qian, a renowned historian of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). This text mentions several individuals with the surname Zheng, suggesting that the name was already in use during this period.
The first notable historical figure with the given name Zheng was Zheng He (1371–1433), a renowned Chinese explorer and fleet admiral who led several maritime voyages throughout Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). His voyages are considered among the greatest feats of maritime exploration in the pre-modern era.
Another significant historical figure with the name Zheng was Zheng Chenggong (1624–1662), also known as Koxinga. He was a military leader and Ming loyalist who established the Kingdom of Tungning on Taiwan, resisting the Qing Dynasty's conquest of Ming territories. Zheng Chenggong is revered as a national hero in Taiwan for his role in defending the island against the Qing forces.
In the realm of Chinese literature, Zheng Xuan (127–200 AD) was a prominent scholar and commentator during the Eastern Han Dynasty. He is best known for his influential commentary on the classic Confucian text "The Analects" (Lunyu), which helped shape the interpretation of Confucian teachings for generations.
During the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), Zheng Gu (697–781) was a renowned poet and calligrapher. He is celebrated for his exceptional calligraphic skills and for contributing to the development of the regular script style (kaishu) in Chinese calligraphy.
In more recent history, Zheng Xiaoxu (1860–1938) was a prominent philosopher, educator, and reformist during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China era. He advocated for modernization and educational reforms, playing a significant role in shaping the intellectual landscape of his time.
People
Zheng + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zheng as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zheng: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zheng?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zheng 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Zheng a common name?
We classify Zheng as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zheng most popular?
The single biggest year for Zheng was 2002, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zheng is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zheng in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,111 people with the name Zheng, or 1.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,497 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 Zheng 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 Zheng?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Zheng on both sides of the split. Of the 3,119 people counted with this name, 2,104 were male (67.5%) and 1,015 were female (32.5%). 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 Zheng?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zheng is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.2%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Hispanic (0.4%). 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 Zheng most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Zheng in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.2% (3,024 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 Zheng in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zheng a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zheng 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 Zheng still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zheng 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 Zheng 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 named Zheng?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.