Tabatha
A feminine name derived from the Hebrew word meaning "gazelle".
Name Census estimates that about 17,973 living Americans carry the first name Tabatha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tabatha today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tabatha births was 1983 (837 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tabatha. 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 Tabatha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,071 Americans
Peak year
1983
837 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,458
Tracked since 1965
Census
Tabatha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,274 people with the first name Tabatha, which placed it at #1,879 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
#1,879
National first-name rank
People counted
15K
15,274 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tabatha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tabatha is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (7.7%). 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 Tabatha 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 Tabatha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.2% · 11,335
- Black or African American12.2% · 1,864
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 1,171
- Two or more races4.7% · 717
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 140
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 47
Popularity
Tabatha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tabatha from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 7,289 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tabatha 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 Tabatha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tabathas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Tabatha, while Utah, North Dakota, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 386 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tabatha
The name Tabatha is a feminine given name derived from the Aramaic name תַּבִּיתָא (Tabbitha), which itself may have originated from the Semitic root word meaning "gazelle" or "graceful". It is closely related to the Greek name Δορκάς (Dorcas), which has the same meaning and appears in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.
The earliest recorded use of the name Tabitha (the Latinized spelling of Tabbitha) dates back to the 1st century AD, when it was mentioned in the Bible's Acts of the Apostles 9:36. This passage refers to a woman named Tabitha, a disciple who lived in Joppa and was known for her good works and acts of charity. After her death, she was miraculously brought back to life by the apostle Peter.
Throughout history, the name has been spelled in various ways, including Tabitha, Tabytha, Tabbitha, and Tabatha. The latter spelling, Tabatha, became more common in the English-speaking world during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Tabatha was Tabatha of Gwynedd, a 6th-century Welsh princess and saint. Another notable figure was Tabatha Corry (c. 1758-1828), an Irish author and playwright who was a prominent figure in the literary circles of Dublin.
In the 19th century, Tabatha Spruce Henley (1823-1904) was an American educator and philanthropist who founded the Henley School for Young Ladies in Tennessee. Around the same time, Tabatha Twitchit was a fictional character in the children's books by Beatrix Potter, first appearing in "The Tale of Samuel Whiskers" in 1908.
In more recent times, Tabatha Coffey (born 1969) is an Australian hairstylist and television personality best known for hosting the reality shows "Tabatha's Salon Takeover" and "Relative Success with Tabatha".
While not as common as some other names, Tabatha has maintained a presence throughout history, with its origins rooted in ancient Aramaic and its meaning associated with grace and beauty.
People
Tabatha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tabatha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tabatha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tabatha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,973 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tabatha 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 19,071 US residents.
Is Tabatha a common name?
We classify Tabatha as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 19,398 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tabatha most popular?
The single biggest year for Tabatha was 1983, when 837 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tabatha is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tabatha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,274 people with the name Tabatha, or 5.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,879 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 Tabatha 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 Tabatha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tabatha appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,280 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Tabatha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tabatha is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (7.7%). 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 Tabatha most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tabatha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.2% (11,335 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 Tabatha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tabatha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tabatha in the SSA data are female. 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 Tabatha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tabatha 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 Tabatha 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 have the name Tabatha?
See how many Americans are named Tabatha on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.