# Lang (surname)

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

An English surname transferred from the nickname from Old English lang (“long”), a nickname for a tall person.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 61,529 |
| US rank (2010) | 545 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 5,018 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.8% (59,843 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Lange, Laing, Layng |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Lang 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) | 81% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 10% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 3.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Lang in the United States, Austria, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Germany.

## People named Lang

- Fritz Lang, Austrian filmmaker (1890–1976)
- Stephen Lang, American actor
- Katherine Kelly Lang, American actress
- Walter Lang, American film director (1896–1972)
- Charles Lang, American cinematographer (1902-1998)
- Cosmo Gordon Lang, British archbishop and clergyman (1864-1945)
- Robert J. Lang, American physicist, mathematician and origami expert
- Marie Lang, Austrian feminist, theosophist and publisher, editor (1858-1934)
- June Lang, American actress (1917-2005)
- Michael Lang, American concert promoter and record producer (1944-2022)
- Eddie Lang, American jazz guitarist (1902–1933)
- Jonny Lang, American blues, gospel, and rock singer and songwriter

and 25 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Long, Liang, Ling, Lung, Laing, Leng, Lange, Lance, Lanza, Lanz, Lawing, Lanuza.

## 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.