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Official JPN data · Chinese names

Chinese naming eras: Ah Moi → Siew Lan → Mei Ling → Michelle → Xin Yi → Chloe

Eight decades of JPN ‘Cina’ popular-name tables show a few clear eras. Every figure is a share of the total of that decade’s top 10 names for that sex.

Ah- names, girls 1950s
45%
“Siew”, girls 1960s
71%
English names, boys 2000s
100%
Mandarin pinyin, girls 2000s
64%

The #1 name of each decade

  1. 1940s

    Boy: Tan 16%

    Girl: Tan 17%

  2. 1950s

    Boy: Lee 15%

    Girl: Ah Moi 18%

  3. 1960s

    Boy: Chee Keong 21%

    Girl: Siew Lan 13%

  4. 1970s

    Boy: Chee Keong 22%

    Girl: Mei Ling 15%

  5. 1980s

    Boy: Chee Keong 18%

    Girl: Mei Ling 15%

  6. 1990s

    Boy: Kelvin 14%

    Girl: Michelle 14%

  7. 2000s

    Boy: Bryan 14%

    Girl: Xin Yi 19%

  8. 2010s

    Boy: Jayden 28%

    Girl: Chloe 21%

Percentages: share of that decade’s top-10 total for the same sex.

Name forms by decade

Boy

  • Surname as the entry
  • Ah- names
  • Two syllables, dialect spelling
  • Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin
  • English/Western name
0%50%100% 1940 · Surname as the entry: 100% 1940 1950 · Surname as the entry: 75%1950 · Ah- names: 18%1950 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 7.2% 1950 1960 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 100% 1960 1970 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 100% 1970 1980 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 100% 1980 1990 · Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin: 8.4%1990 · English/Western name: 92% 1990 2000 · English/Western name: 100% 2000 2010 · Surname as the entry: 5.8%2010 · English/Western name: 94% 2010
Boys: surnames as the entry in the 1940s, two-syllable dialect spellings from the 1960s to the 1980s, then English names (100% in the 2000s).
Show the table
DecadeSurname as the entryAh- namesTwo syllables, dialect spellingTwo syllables, Mandarin pinyinEnglish/Western name
1940100%0%0%0%0%
195075%18%7.2%0%0%
19600%0%100%0%0%
19700%0%100%0%0%
19800%0%100%0%0%
19900%0%0%8.4%92%
20000%0%0%0%100%
20105.8%0%0%0%94%

Girl

  • Surname as the entry
  • Ah- names
  • Two syllables, dialect spelling
  • Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin
  • English/Western name
0%50%100% 1940 · Surname as the entry: 81%1940 · Ah- names: 19% 1940 1950 · Surname as the entry: 39%1950 · Ah- names: 45%1950 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 16% 1950 1960 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 100% 1960 1970 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 83%1970 · Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin: 17% 1970 1980 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 63%1980 · Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin: 37% 1980 1990 · Surname as the entry: 25%1990 · Two syllables, dialect spelling: 11%1990 · Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin: 42%1990 · English/Western name: 23% 1990 2000 · Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin: 64%2000 · English/Western name: 36% 2000 2010 · Surname as the entry: 7.5%2010 · Two syllables, Mandarin pinyin: 64%2010 · English/Western name: 29% 2010
Girls: Ah- names peak in the 1950s (45%); Mandarin pinyin rises to 64% in the 2010s, alongside English names (29%).
Show the table
DecadeSurname as the entryAh- namesTwo syllables, dialect spellingTwo syllables, Mandarin pinyinEnglish/Western name
194081%19%0%0%0%
195039%45%16%0%0%
19600%0%100%0%0%
19700%0%83%17%0%
19800%0%63%37%0%
199025%0%11%42%23%
20000%0%0%64%36%
20107.5%0%0%64%29%

The syllable of each era

Girl

  1. 1940s · Moi 8.3%
  2. 1950s · Moi 17.6%
  3. 1960s · Siew 71.1%
  4. 1970s · Siew 46.4%
  5. 1980s · Ling 68.5%
  6. 1990s · Jia 27.6%
  7. 2000s · Jia 37.6%
  8. 2010s · Xuan 47.2%

Boy

  1. 1950s · Kow 11.4%
  2. 1960s · Chee 59.1%
  3. 1970s · Chee 71.3%
  4. 1980s · Chee 58.6%
  5. 1990s · Wei 8.4%

The syllable with the largest share in each decade, counted over two-word entries (a name counts once for each of its syllables). The small line shows that syllable’s share across all decades.

38 syllables in the JPN tables

How this is worked out

Each name in the JPN ‘Cina’ tables is matched to its record on this site. Forms: entries starting “Ah”; entries that are surnames; Western-tradition names; two-syllable names whose record is labelled Mandarin pinyin only; and other two-syllable names (Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew or mixed spellings).

The tables hold only the top 10 names per sex and decade; names outside them have no figure. A form describes the name string, not the family or why it was chosen. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)

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Frequently asked questions

Why do surnames appear in the 1940s tables?

In the early JPN ‘Cina’ tables the published “first name” is often a surname such as Tan or Lee. That is an effect of the registration format at the time, not a name chosen for a baby.

Do these percentages mean numbers of babies?

No. Each percentage is a share of the total of the 10 names published for that decade and sex. Those totals differ between decades, so we compare shares, not counts.

How is a name’s form decided?

From the published string and the record it is matched to: entries starting “Ah” are Ah- names; entries matched to a surname record are surnames; Western names are Western-tradition records; two-syllable names are split into Mandarin pinyin (records labelled Mandarin only) and other dialect spellings.

Does an English name mean the family uses no Chinese name?

Not necessarily. JPN publishes the registered first name; many people have both an English and a Chinese name. The tables do not show why a family chose a name.