Ma

Ma is the 892nd most common surname in the United States, shared by 38,387 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 7,786.

By the numbers

People: 38,387
Rank: 892nd
How common: 1 in 7,786
Per 100,000: 12.8

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 Ma described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 93.3%
White, not Hispanic 3.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 1.5%
Hispanic or Latino 1.2%
Black, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.03%

Notable people called Ma

Jack Ma (born 1964)Chinese businessman
Ma Ying-jeou (born 1950)12th and 13th President of Republic of China(Taiwan)
Yo-Yo Ma (born 1955)American cellist
Ma Huateng (born 1971)Chinese internet entrepreneur
Ma Long (born 1988)Chinese table tennis player
Ma Lin (born 1980)Chinese table tennis player
Tzi Ma (born 1962)Hong Kong American actor
Ma Yuan (1160–1225)Chinese painter from Song Dynasty

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

Surnames like Ma

Also a first name

Ma has been given to 631 American babies as a first name since 1924, peaking in 1990. 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.