Tian
surname · Chinese · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Tian is a surname, most frequently recorded in China. It appears chiefly in Chinese and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence.
- MYMalaysia1 in 45K◐
- USUnited States1 in 94K
- CNChina1 in 196K
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈4.8K ●
- Sources
- 253 ●
- 1 in 26K ◐
across 13 countries
30K records
Official registry-verified
Finland
Meaning & origin●
An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | #748 | 12,218 | 4.4K rec. | — | — | Tian | 138 |
| US United States | — | 3,547 | 19K rec. | 1 in 94K | 6.8K | Tian | 253 |
| MY Malaysia | — | 1,229 | 1.7K rec. | — | — | Tian | 50 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | 1,066 | 1K rec. | — | — | Tian | 70 |
| SG Singapore | #750 | 848 | 1.3K rec. | — | — | Tian | 66 |
| CA Canada | — | 677 | 961 rec. | — | 1 | Tian | 80 |
| TW Taiwan | #649 | 498 | 317 rec. | — | — | Tian | 66 |
| ES Spain | — | 431△ | 126 rec. | 1 in 116K | 431 | — | 34 |
| HK Hong Kong | #628 | 266 | 283 rec. | — | — | Tian | 41 |
| FI Finland | — | 211△ | 11 rec. | 1 in 26K | 211 | — | 6 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | 189 | 220 rec. | — | — | Tian | 27 |
| SE Sweden | — | 159△ | 76 rec. | 1 in 64K | 159 | — | 20 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- Chinese31K31%
- English31K31%
- 5.1K5%
- Spanish4.2K4%
- Malay4.2K4%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 30,860 | 31% |
| English | 30,759 | 31% |
| 5,111 | 5% | |
| Spanish | 4,188 | 4% |
| Malay | 4,187 | 4% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Tian is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of tiān
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In poz-oce-pro, belly, abdomen
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In pns, stomach
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In ilm, belly
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In bfg, the skin and flesh of an animal’s underbelly, breast bone, etc.
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Over time●
Show as table
| Year | records |
|---|---|
| 1974 | 5 |
| 1975 | 6 |
| 1978 | 5 |
| 1980 | 7 |
| 1981 | 7 |
| 1982 | 6 |
| 1993 | 9 |
| 1994 | 8 |
| 1995 | 7 |
| 1996 | 6 |
| 1997 | 9 |
| 1998 | 10 |
| 1999 | 7 |
| 2000 | 6 |
| 2001 | 5 |
| 2002 | 11 |
| 2003 | 12 |
| 2004 | 10 |
| 2005 | 11 |
| 2006 | 14 |
| 2007 | 12 |
| 2008 | 5 |
| 2009 | 13 |
| 2010 | 10 |
| 2011 | 14 |
| 2012 | 11 |
| 2013 | 12 |
| 2014 | 8 |
| 2015 | 10 |
| 2016 | 12 |
| 2017 | 18 |
| 2018 | 18 |
| 2019 | 16 |
| 2020 | 13 |
| 2021 | 13 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 26 |
| 2024 | 25 |
| 2025 | 12 |
US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 39 years between 1974–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.
Notable people with this name●
- Thomas Tien Ken-sinb. 1890CNnot in their usual nameCatholic cardinal (1890-1967)
- Tian Hanb. 1898CNChinese playwright, screenwriter, songwriter (1898-1968)
- Tien Fengb. 1928TWnot in their usual nameChinese actor (1928–2015)
- James Tienb. 1942CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong actor
- Tian Zhuangzhuangb. 1952CNChinese filmmaker
- Gang Tianb. 1958CNChinese mathematician
- Lily Tienb. 1967TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese actress
- Tian Qingb. 1986CNChinese badminton player
- Valerie Tianb. 1989CAactress
- Jeon Jiheeb. 1992CNnot in their usual nameChinese-born South Korean table tennis player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence●
Attested in 71 sources across 37 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 6.8K | #5,007 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3.5K | #9,195 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.6K | #16,160 |
| XK Kosovo | ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) | — | 1.5K | #501 |
| SI Slovenia | stat.si Imena rojstva — full name register (per-token frequency + rank) | — | 1.5K | #303 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.5K | #6,117 |
| SI Slovenia | SURS — resident population given names | 2025 | 1.5K | #138 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.1K | #6,117 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 678 | #2,074 |
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 431 | #9,009 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 431 | #8,981 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 270 | #7,161 |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 434 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Tian?
- We estimate roughly 4.8 thousand people bear Tian (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.
- In which country does Tian have the most bearers?
- Tian is most frequently recorded in China, where it is most often spelled tian.
- How common is Tian compared with other names?
- In China, Tian is the 748th most common surname of 134,008 surnames recorded there.
- What does the name Tian mean?
- Recorded meaning: An oval cooking-pot, traditionally used in Provence.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/tianThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Tian” — the 748th most common surname in China. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.