Tahra
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "morning dew" or "fresh like morning dew".
Name Census estimates that about 137 living Americans carry the first name Tahra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tahra today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tahra births was 1976 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tahra. 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
137
~ 1 in 2,501,856 Americans
Peak year
1976
9 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2011 SSA rank
#19,282
Tracked since 1969
Census
Tahra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 214 people with the first name Tahra, which placed it at #36,840 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
#36,840
National first-name rank
People counted
214
214 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tahra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tahra is White at 55.6%. The next largest groups are Black (21.5%) and Two or More Races (12.1%). 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 Tahra 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 Tahra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.6% · 119
- Black or African American21.5% · 46
- Two or more races12.1% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2
Popularity
Tahra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tahra from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 63 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
Tahra 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 Tahra 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 Tahra
The name Tahra has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is a feminine given name that was first recorded in the Middle East during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries.
Tahra is derived from the Arabic root word "tehr," which means "pure" or "chaste." The name was likely given to girls as a virtue name, reflecting the desire for purity and innocence. Similar spellings include Tahira, Tahera, and Taherah.
While there are no direct historical references to the name Tahra in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is believed to have been in use among Arabic-speaking communities during the Islamic Golden Age. The earliest recorded example of the name dates back to the 9th century, when a woman named Tahra bint Ahmad al-Jabariyah was a prominent scholar and poet in Baghdad.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Tahra. One of the earliest was Tahra al-Andalusiyya (born around 961 AD), a renowned poet and literary figure from Cordoba, Spain. Another was Tahra Zafar (1872-1935), an influential Indian writer and feminist activist who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement.
In the 20th century, Tahra Yazdani (1915-2008) was an Iranian sculptor and painter known for her contributions to modern art in Iran. Tahra Laribi (born 1957) is a Tunisian writer and academic who has published several works on women's rights and Islamic feminism.
Tahra Achnak (born 1970) is a Moroccan film director and screenwriter whose works have explored themes of gender, identity, and cultural representation. Her film "Heya Fawda" (She is Crazy) received international acclaim and won several awards.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have carried the name Tahra throughout history, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and associations with purity, literature, and artistic expression.
People
Tahra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tahra 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
Tahra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tahra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 137 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tahra 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 2,501,856 US residents.
Is Tahra a common name?
We classify Tahra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 147 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tahra most popular?
The single biggest year for Tahra was 1976, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tahra is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tahra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 214 people with the name Tahra, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,840 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 Tahra 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 Tahra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tahra leans strongly female. 218 people counted with this name were female (97.3%), compared with 6 male bearers (2.7%). 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 Tahra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tahra is White at 55.6%. The next largest groups are Black (21.5%) and Two or More Races (12.1%). 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 Tahra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tahra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.6% (119 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 Tahra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tahra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tahra 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 Tahra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tahra 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 Tahra 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 Tahra?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.