Thiam


Thiam is a both a surname of West African origin and an element in Chinese given names.

Surname

Origins and statistics

As a surname, Thiam is found among the Fula and Wolof people of Senegal and nearby countries, and originated from a family of goldsmiths. In the modern Fula language and Wolof language orthographies, it is spelled Caam. Thiam is one of a number of older spellings which originated during French colonial rule; others include Tyam, Chiam, and Cham. This surname is spelled Thiam in Senegal, and Cham in the Gambia. The surname originated from Toucouleur or Laobe people, and is found among Pulaar language speakers. It is not authentically Wolof, and only made its way to the Wolof through Wolof mixture.
French government statistics show 508 people with the surname Thiam born in France from 1991 to 2000, 532 from 1981 to 1990, 196 from 1971 to 1980, and 143 in earlier time periods. The 2010 United States census found 935 people with the surname Thiam, making it the 26,171st-most-common surname in the country. This represented an increase from 494 people in the 2000 census. In both censuses, about nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified as Black, and roughly two to three percent as White or Asian.

Government officials and politicians

Athletes

Other people

Given name

Thiam can be a romanisation, based on the pronunciation in different varieties of Chinese, of multiple Chinese characters. Chinese given names frequently consist of two characters, as in the names of all of the people listed below. The character in common in all of the two-character names below means "to increase" ; it can be spelled as Thiam based on its pronunciation in Hakka or various Southern Min dialects.