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Name Lineage

    The surname Chan

    A Chinese surname, carried by 76,664 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /tʃæn/ 1 syllable Soundex C500

    Chan: #425 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#10,001Dubon Chan #425, 76,664 people Chan: #425 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott Chan #425, 76,664 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Chan is more common than 99.7% of them.

    Origin

    Chinese origin

    Borrowed from Cantonese 陳 /陈 (can⁴).

    One of 193 Chinese surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 76,664 people named Chan in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 4,027 Americans. That is up 17% since 2000, when the Census counted 65,719.

    #425
    rank among US surnames
    76,664
    people in 2010
    26
    per 100,000 Americans
    +16.7%
    change since 2000 (was #459)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #416Blair78,0263,957
    #417O'Connor77,9233,962
    #418Cardenas77,6523,976
    #419Pacheco77,6423,977
    #420Cross77,5573,981
    #421Calderon77,0854,005
    #422Quinn76,9864,010

    Who is named Chan

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    89% of people named Chan identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, 4.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 2.8% as white (not Hispanic).

    • Asian and Pacific Islander 89%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4.6%
    • White (not Hispanic) 2.8%
    • Two or more races 2.5%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 0.8%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.1%

    Compare: most common surnames among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Chan

    Chan has the Soundex code C500, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C500.

    Other Chinese surnames

    All 193 Chinese surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Chan come from?
    Borrowed from Cantonese 陳 /陈 (can⁴).
    How common is the surname Chan?
    76,664 people in the United States had the surname Chan in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 4,027 Americans. It ranked 425th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Chan?
    In the 2010 Census, 89% of people named Chan identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, and 4.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
    How do you pronounce Chan?
    Chan is /tʃæn/, one syllable.
    Is the surname Chan getting more or less common?
    More common. 65,719 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 76,664 in 2010, up 17%.