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Chinese sounding surnames in the 1990 US census
This list was created by eyeballing the last name frequency list from the 1990 US Census. I judged purely by the spelling and sound of some common Chinese surnames. To err is human, I cannot guarantee this list is complete or correct. Some names are commonly used by both Chinese and non-Chinese, e.g. LEE, LAW, JOE, TOM etc. Lee is a very common American name in the South, remember General Robert E. Lee in the US Civil War?I heard on the news couple years back, Wang (or Wong in Cantonese) is the most popular surname in the mainland China. If we assume the Lee's statistic is biased by the non-Chinese Lees, then Wong is the number one Chinese name in the US, which is consistent with the statistic in China. There is a web site that ranks the top Chinese Surnames in simplified Chinese (and another site in traditional Chinese). But these sites use the mainland China spelling system which is not commonly used in the US by Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
There is another factor making the true ranking impossible when the data was collected in English: the same Chinese surname can be spelled differently depending on where the family comes from. Regional Chinese dialects result in different spelling of the name even when they are written the same way in Chinese. For example, Huang (Mandarin) is the same as Wong (Cantonese); Wang (Mandarin) is the same as Wong (Cantonese)(there are two different Cantonese Wongs); Lee (Cantonese), Li (Mandarin), Le and Ly (vietnamese) are all the same, however, a different Li can be the Mandarin version of Lai too; Chou, Chao, Chau, Joe, Zhou may be the same name; Choi, Choy (Cantonese), Tsai (Mandarin) are the same name; Tam (Cantonese), Tom, Hom (Tai San), Tan (Mandarin) may be the same name. etc. etc...
The following list is sorted by the frequency among Chinese surnames in the US, the second number is the rank in the overall US population.
- 24 LEE (see also Le, Li, Ly) note: biased, definitely includes the American Lee families.
- 459 WONG (see also Wang, Huang)
- 687 CHANG (see also Cheung, Zhang, Cheng)
- 720 CHEN (see also Chan)
- 764 CHAN (see also Chen)
- 810 YANG (see also Yeung, Young)
- 975 LE (see also Lee, Li, Ly)
- 1026 WANG (see also Huang, Wong)
- 1088 LAW (see also Lo)
- 1275 HO
- 1447 LIN (see also Lam, Lim, Lum)
- 1527 CHOI (see also Choy, Tsai)
- 1555 GEE (see also Chu)
- 1712 LAM (see also Lim, Lin)
- 1734 YU (see also Yee, Yi)
- 1746 CHIN
- 1789 WU (see also NG, Woo)
- 1903 CHO (see also Chao)
- 1958 LIM (see also Lum, Lam, Lin)
- 1962 CHU (see also Gee)
- 2011 HUANG (see also Wong)
- 2042 HONG (see also Kang)
- 2084 LI
(see also Lee, Le, Ly, Lai)- 2126 TANG (see also Dang)
- 2300 LIU (see also Lau, Niu)
- 2332 NG (see Wu, Woo)
- 2351 LAU (see also Liu)
- 2401 KANG (see also Hong)
- 2460 CHENG (see also Chang)
- 2485 HAN (see also Hon)
- 2588 TAN (see also Tam, Tom, Hom)
- 2615 YEE (see also Yu, Yi)
- 2919 CHONG (Jong)
- 2925 CHOW (see also Chau, Chou, Joe, Zhou)
- 2934 DO (see also Tu, To, Du, Tao)
- 2990 YI (see also Yee, Yu)
- 3049 LO (see also Lu, Law, Loo)
- 3207 LU (see also Lo, Loo)
- 3375 MA
- 3430 SHIN
- 3465 HSU (see also Hui)
- 3486 FONG (see also Fang)
- 3489 CHUN
- 3509 LEUNG (see also Liang, Liong)
- 3596 TAM (see also Tan, Tom, Hom)
- 3672 CHEUNG (see also Zhang)
- 3686 LAI
(see also Li)- 3687 JOE (see also Chow, Chou, Zhou)
- 3768 KEE (see also Kay)
- 3788 ZHANG (see also Cheung)
- 3986 TOM (see also Tam, Tan, Hom)
- 3997 WOO (see also Wu, Ng)
- 4213 TONG (see also Tang)
- 4349 SUN (see also Suen)
- 4402 CHAU (see also Chou, Zhou, Chow, Joe)
- 4447 HA
- 4497 KONG (see also Kwong)
- 5281 CHA
- 5337 KWAN (see also Quan)
- 5652 QUAN (see also Kwan)
- 5755 CHAO (see also Cho)
- 5882 CHING (see also Cheng)
- 5897 SU (see also So)
- 5956 HU (see also Woo, Wu)
- 5982 LUM (see Lin, Lim, Lam)
- 6028 LIANG (see Leung)
- 6353 LEONG (see Leung)
- 6406 CHOU (see also Chau, Zhou, Chow, Joe)
- 6440 FUNG
- 6721 YEUN (see also Yuan)
- 6768 DEE (see also Tai)
- 6946 TSAI (see Cjoi, choy)
- 6999 TSE
- 7007 PANG (see also Phang)
- 7015 KWON
- 7147 HOM
- 7361 YAN
- 7455 SENG
- 7508 TO
- 7606 HUNG
- 7638 TSO
- 7868 TSANG
- 8089 YEH
- 8126 KO
- 8233 TU
- 8284 KAO
- 8331 YUN
- 8346 SIU
- 8499 CHIANG
- 8527 SO
- 8552 LUI
- 8560 KU
- 8628 MONG
- 8878 SUNG
- 8937 FANG
- 9010 LAO
- 9119 HUA
- 9170 ZHAO
- 9171 YEUNG
- 9172 YEN
- 9371 YUNG
- 9372 YIM
- 9487 WAN
- 9705 FAN
- 9823 HUI
- 9852 DAO
- 9874 YUAN
- 10011 YAO
- 10250 CHOY
- 10268 ZHOU
- 10287 TAI
- 11200 KWONG
- 11417 AU (see also Ou)
- 11424 YIP
- 12503 TAO
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