Tagen
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "born at dawn".
Name Census estimates that about 262 living Americans carry the first name Tagen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 62.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Tagen today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tagen births was 2007 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tagen. 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.
People living today
262
~ 1 in 1,308,223 Americans
Peak year
2007
33 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2019 SSA rank
#13,885
Tracked since 1998
Census
Tagen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 314 people with the first name Tagen, which placed it at #28,548 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
#28,548
National first-name rank
People counted
314
314 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tagen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tagen is White at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.8%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Tagen 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 Tagen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.4% · 262
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 15
- Two or more races4.8% · 15
- Black or African American4.5% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Tagen
Tagen is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 265 total registrations, 166 (62.6%) were male and 99 (37.4%) were female.
Tagen as a male name
- Ranked #13,885 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2007 (19 births)
Tagen as a female name
- Ranked #19,236 in 2012
- 5 female births in 2012
- Peak: 2007 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tagen on both sides of the split. Of the 320 people counted with this name, 170 were male (53.1%) and 150 were female (46.9%).
Popularity
Tagen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tagen from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 187 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tagen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tagen 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 Tagen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tagen
The given name Tagen is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples who inhabited Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe during the Viking Age, approximately from the 8th to the 11th century AD. The name is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word "tág," which means "a branch" or "a twig."
While the exact origin of the name is uncertain, it is speculated that Tagen may have been used as a descriptive name, perhaps referring to a person's physical appearance or character traits reminiscent of a slender, flexible branch. The name could also have been associated with the natural world, as the Norse people had a deep reverence for nature and often drew inspiration from it when naming their children.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Tagen can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of prose narratives that depict the lives and adventures of the Norse settlers in Iceland during the 9th to 11th centuries. In the Saga of Gisli Sursson, a character named Tagen is mentioned, though little is known about the specifics of this individual.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Tagen. One such person was Tagen Valborgsson (c. 1130 - c. 1200), a Swedish nobleman and military commander who played a significant role in the Swedish-Novgorodian Wars of the 12th century. Another prominent individual was Tagen Eriksson (c. 1280 - c. 1350), a Norwegian explorer and navigator who is credited with leading several expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic regions.
In the realm of literature, Tagen Andersson (1573 - 1640) was a Swedish poet and playwright whose works were influential during the Swedish Renaissance period. Additionally, Tagen Olofsson (1680 - 1745) was a renowned Swedish artist and wood carver, known for his intricate and detailed woodwork adorning churches and public buildings throughout Sweden.
While not as widely known today, the name Tagen also appears in historical records from other parts of Europe, such as Germany and the Netherlands, likely due to the influence of Norse culture and migration patterns during the Viking Age and subsequent periods.
People
Tagen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tagen 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
Tagen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tagen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 262 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tagen 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 1,308,223 US residents.
Is Tagen a common name?
We classify Tagen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 265 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tagen most popular?
The single biggest year for Tagen was 2007, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tagen is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tagen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 314 people with the name Tagen, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,548 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 Tagen 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 Tagen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tagen on both sides of the split. Of the 320 people counted with this name, 170 were male (53.1%) and 150 were female (46.9%). 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 Tagen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tagen is White at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.8%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Tagen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tagen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (262 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 Tagen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tagen a male name?
Yes, 62.6% of people registered as Tagen 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 Tagen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tagen 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 Tagen 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 Tagen?
Find out how many people share the name Tagen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.