Khoa
A Vietnamese masculine name meaning "precious" or "gem".
Name Census estimates that about 781 living Americans carry the first name Khoa. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Khoa today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khoa births was 1985 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khoa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Khoa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
781
~ 1 in 438,866 Americans
Peak year
1985
29 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,149
Tracked since 1976
Census
Khoa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,329 people with the first name Khoa, which placed it at #4,352 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,352
National first-name rank
People counted
4.3K
4,329 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khoa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khoa is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.4%. The next largest groups are White (1.0%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Khoa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Khoa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.4% · 4,216
- White1.0% · 45
- Two or more races0.9% · 40
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 17
- Black or African American0.2% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Khoa
Out of the 799 babies given the name Khoa since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Khoa as a male name
- Ranked #5,149 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (29 births)
Khoa as a female name
- Ranked #16,473 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khoa leans strongly male. 4,154 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 179 female bearers (4.1%).
Popularity
Khoa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khoa from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 203 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Khoa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khoa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Khoa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khoas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Virginia recorded the most babies named Khoa, while Virginia, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 79 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Khoa
The name Khoa has its origins in the Vietnamese language and culture, tracing back to the medieval era. It is a derivative of the Vietnamese word "khoa," which means "branch" or "department," reflecting its historical association with academic and scholarly pursuits.
During the Ly Dynasty (1009-1225 CE), the Vietnamese education system was organized into various "khoa" or departments, each specializing in a specific field of knowledge. The name Khoa gained prominence as a given name for individuals who excelled in their respective academic disciplines or demonstrated a strong dedication to learning.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Khoa can be found in the annals of the Tran Dynasty (1225-1400 CE), where it was borne by Khoa Huu Nhat, a renowned scholar and advisor to the imperial court. His contributions to Vietnamese literature and philosophy earned him a lasting legacy.
In the realm of Vietnamese Buddhism, the name Khoa also held significance. Khoa Huan, a revered Buddhist monk and teacher, gained widespread recognition during the 15th century for his profound teachings and his efforts to preserve the Buddhist traditions in Vietnam.
As the centuries progressed, the name Khoa continued to be bestowed upon individuals of academic and intellectual distinction. Notable figures include Khoa Van Vien (1824-1892), a celebrated poet and calligrapher during the Nguyen Dynasty, and Khoa Huu Tho (1890-1973), a prominent scholar and educator who played a pivotal role in modernizing Vietnam's education system.
Another remarkable individual bearing the name Khoa was Khoa Dien Tho (1918-1997), a renowned linguist and lexicographer. His seminal work, the Vietnamese-French Dictionary, published in 1957, became a invaluable resource for scholars and students alike, cementing his legacy in the field of Vietnamese linguistics.
While the name Khoa has its roots in Vietnam's rich cultural heritage, it has also transcended borders and gained recognition in other parts of the world, particularly among individuals of Vietnamese descent. Khoa Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American computer scientist and entrepreneur, co-founded the influential software company Cloudflare, further exemplifying the name's association with intellectual and innovative endeavors.
People
Khoa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khoa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Khoa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khoa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 781 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khoa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 438,866 US residents.
Is Khoa a common name?
We classify Khoa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 799 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khoa most popular?
The single biggest year for Khoa was 1985, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khoa is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khoa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,329 people with the name Khoa, or 1.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,352 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Khoa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Khoa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khoa leans strongly male. 4,154 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 179 female bearers (4.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Khoa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khoa is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.4%. The next largest groups are White (1.0%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Khoa most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Khoa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.4% (4,216 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Khoa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khoa a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Khoa in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Khoa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khoa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Khoa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Khoa?
Find out how many Americans are named Khoa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.