Chen
From the Hebrew chen, meaning grace: the kindness someone wins without having to earn it. In Poland it stays rare, and it splits almost evenly between women and men, one of the few names that works the same for both.
Chen Pronunciation
Chen is pronounced KHEN (/xɛn/).
What Chen means
Where Chen comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Chen comes from the Hebrew word chen (חֵן), meaning grace or favor. In the Hebrew Bible it appears at a hinge moment: Noah found chen in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8), and the word returns whenever someone wins kindness they did not have to earn. Modern Israelis give the name to daughters and to sons, since chen belongs to no single gender.
There is a second life to these three letters. In Chinese, Chen ranks among the most common surnames, written 陈, and it shares nothing with the Hebrew grace beyond its sound. One syllable sits in two languages and means something different in each.
For a Polish reader, chen becomes wdzięk or urok, the pleasant quality that makes a gesture easy to like. Chen is short. On a Polish class register the name would read as an open, single beat, and its meaning stays plain: grace.
How many people are named Chen
1 in 204944 women in Poland is named Chen. 212 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2147 among female names.
Chen's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Chen as a middle name
Chen is a first name for 212 women in Poland and a middle name for another 29, an 88/12 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1301st, between Ariela (29) and Donna (29).
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#1299 Adria29
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#1300 Ariela29
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#1301 Chen29
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#1302 Donna29
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#1303 Edeltraut29