Chen

233,798 people in the United States were counted with the surname Chen in the 2020 census, making it the 93rd most common in the country. That is about one person in 1,278.

By the numbers

People: 233,798
Rank: 93rd
How common: 1 in 1,278
Per 100,000: 78.2

Where the name comes from

Origin Chinese

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

Who bears the name

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

Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 95.4%
White, not Hispanic 2.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 1.5%
Hispanic or Latino 0.6%
Black, not Hispanic 0.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.01%

Notable people called Chen

Chen Shui-bian (born 1950)10th and 11th President of Republic of China(Taiwan)
Joan Chen (born 1961)Chinese-American actress and director
Zhu Chen (born 1976)Chinese-Qatari chess player
Steve Chen (born 1978)Chinese-American businessman
Chen Duxiu (1879–1942)Chinese politician and co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party
Chen Kaige (born 1952)Chinese film director and screenwriter
Chen Guangcheng (born 1971)Chinese dissident lawyer
Chen Yi (1901–1972)Chinese military officer, People's Republic of China

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

Surnames like Chen

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.