Chan

81,431 people in the United States were counted with the surname Chan in the 2020 census, making it the 384th most common in the country. That is about one person in 3,671.

By the numbers

People: 81,431
Rank: 384th
How common: 1 in 3,671
Per 100,000: 27.2

Where the name comes from

Origin Cantonese

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Chan described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 87.9%
Hispanic or Latino 4.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.5%
White, not Hispanic 3.0%
Black, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.07%

Notable people called Chan

Jackie Chan (born 1954)Hong Kong actor and martial artist
Margaret Chan (born 1947)Chinese-Canadian physician
Priscilla Chan (born 1985)American pediatrician and philanthropist
Patrick Chan (born 1990)Canadian figure skater, Olympic gold medallist
Lee Hae Chan (1952–2026)South Korean politician
Latisha Chan (born 1989)Taiwanese tennis player
Bang Chan (born 1997)South Korean-Australian singer, rapper and music producer
Elim Chan (born 1986)Hong Kong conductor

People named Chan with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Chan

Also a first name

Chan has been given to 1,247 American babies as a first name since 1919, peaking in 1986. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.