# Cai (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/cai/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Chinese.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chinese |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 8,457 |
| US rank (2010) | 4,191 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 36,508 people |
| Change since 2000 | +97% (4,286 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Tsai, Ts'ai |

## Etymology

Borrowed from Mandarin 蔡 (Cài).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cai in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 1.5% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 0.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 96% |
| Two or more races | 1.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cai in Eastern Han and Taiwan.

## People named Cai

- Cai Yan, 3rd century Chinese poet and musician
- Tsai Ing-wen, 14th and 15th President of Republic of China (Taiwan)

## Similar surnames

Cao, Chai, Choi, Cho, Chu, Coe, Chow, Chau, Coy, Chiu, Chao, Chou.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.