Cheng
Cheng is a name with a single cultural origin: Chinese.
- Chinese
Meaning & Origin of Cheng
What this name means, where it came from, and how it has traveled across cultures.
Cheng is a name with a single cultural origin: Chinese.
Origin data from Behind the Name .
Cultural Origins (via Behind the Name)
- Chinese
The Story of Cheng
As a girl name
Cheng first appeared in U.S. Social Security Administration records as a girl name in 1984, with 5 babies given the name that year. The name hit its high-water mark in 1988: 7 births, good for #9,243 nationwide. About 68% of every Cheng on record arrived during the 1990s, its defining decade. Cheng last appeared in the published SSA data in 1997, with 5 recorded births — it has not charted nationally since. All told, over 38 Americans have carried the name since 1880, from the 1980s to the 2020s.
As a boy name
Cheng first appeared in U.S. Social Security Administration records as a boy name in 1979, with 9 babies given the name that year. The name hit its high-water mark in 1990: 42 births, good for #1,841 nationwide. About 40% of every Cheng on record arrived during the 1990s, its defining decade. Cheng last appeared in the published SSA data in 2024, with 6 recorded births — it has not charted nationally since. All told, over 641 Americans have carried the name since 1880, from the 1970s to the 2020s.
Popularity Over Time
Popularity by State
Names that sound like Cheng
Phonetically similar names — useful when Cheng is the vibe but a different syllable count or letter feel might suit better. Linked entries have a profile on Peek a Name.
Source: Datamuse . Phonetic similarity ranking, not curated.
Frequently Asked Questions about Cheng
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In which U.S. states is Cheng most popular?
Is Cheng a unisex name?
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About the name Cheng
Cheng is a unisex baby name tracked by the U.S. Social Security Administration. It first appeared in SSA records in 1979 and has accumulated 641 births in the dataset. Cheng's peak popularity came in 1990 when it ranked #1,841. Use the chart and map above to compare Cheng's trajectory across years and U.S. states, or browse the related names section to discover similar choices.
Continue exploring
- Top names of 1990 →
- Names of the 1990s →
- Names starting with "C" →
- Browse all boy names →
- Top names of 2026 →
- Browse unisex names →
Data sources
- Birth statistics (counts, ranks, years 1880–2026) — U.S. Social Security Administration . Predictions for years not yet released by SSA are computed by Peek a Name from historical trends; we update with official data as soon as it ships.
- Etymology, cultural origins, and related forms — Behind the Name (used under their public API terms).
- Meaning prose and editorial summary — Wikipedia article extracts, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 .
- Predicted nationality distribution — Nationalize.io .
- Phonetically similar names — Datamuse .
Peek a Name aggregates and presents the above data for informational purposes. Statistical predictions and external attributions are clearly labelled where shown; we make no guarantee of accuracy beyond what each source provides.