China
China reached its high-water mark in 1992 at number 816, and has been recorded 4,618 times in all. In 2025 it ranked 10,917th. About 4,200 Chinas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 31.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named China boys named China
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 4,618
- Estimated living today
- 4,200
- Median age today
- 31
- Peak year
- 1992
- Best rank
- 816th
- Rank in 2025
- 10,917th
- First recorded
- 1885
- Girls / boys
- 4,608 / 10
How old the living Chinas are
born that year still alive today
Of the 4,618 babies given the name since 1885, about 4,200 are alive — 91 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1994 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
From Portuguese China, from possibly vec Cina probably under influence from Old French Chin, from fa-cls چین under influence from Medieval Latin Sīna (“China”), from pal 𐭰𐭩𐭭 (“China”), from Sanskrit चीन (“the Chinese; China”) of uncertain etymology.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Chinas
- China Anne McClain (born 1998)American actress and singer
- China Miéville (born 1972)English writer, critic, and activist
- China Zorrilla (1922–2014)Uruguayan actress
- China Forbes (born 1970)American singer, songwriter
- China Chow (born 1974)English actress and model
- China Moses (born 1978)American singer and TV host
- China Shavers (born 1977)American actress
People named China with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where China is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, China is most concentrated in Georgia (3.2×), Michigan (2.8×), Illinois (2.0×), Louisiana (1.7×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1992
The most popular girls’ names the year China peaked:
China elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales girls | China | 166 | 1,036th |
| France girls | China | 5 | 5,436th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Related names
China against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.