# Tong (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chinese |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 13,196 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,730 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 23,397 people |
| Change since 2000 | +22% (10,809 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

For the surname: Borrowed from Cantonese 湯／汤 (tong1), Cantonese 唐 (tong4), Mandarin 佟 (Tóng), Mandarin 童 (Tóng), etc.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Tong 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) | 12% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.5% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 81% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.1% |
| Two or more races | 3.4% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Tong in the United States and Qing dynasty.

## People named Tong

- Kam Tong, American actor (1906-1969)
- Empress Xiaoyiren, 3rd empress of Kangxi Emperor, Qing Dynasty, title changed from Empress Xiaoyi during the 

## Similar surnames

Tang, Tung, Teng, Ting, Towns, Thong, Tonge, Thomas, Tinoco, Tanaka, Tamez, Tomas.

## 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.