Talulah
An English feminine name of uncertain meaning, likely derived from a Native American word.
Name Census estimates that about 522 living Americans carry the first name Talulah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Talulah today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Talulah births was 2024 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Talulah. 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 Talulah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
522
~ 1 in 656,618 Americans
Peak year
2024
57 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,913
Tracked since 2000
Census
Talulah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 313 people with the first name Talulah, which placed it at #28,614 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
#28,614
National first-name rank
People counted
313
313 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Talulah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talulah is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Two or More Races (10.9%). 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 Talulah 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 Talulah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.9% · 222
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 44
- Two or more races10.9% · 34
- Black or African American1.9% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 3
Popularity
Talulah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Talulah from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 222 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Talulah 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 Talulah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Talulahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, North Carolina, New York recorded the most babies named Talulah, while New York, North Carolina, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Talulah
The name Talulah is a Native American name of Muscogee origin, deriving from the Choctaw language spoken by the Choctaw people of the Southeastern United States. It is believed to have originated sometime in the early 18th century or earlier.
Talulah is a combination of two Choctaw words, "talu" meaning "town" and "lah" meaning "rock" or "brook". Therefore, the name Talulah can be interpreted as meaning "town of the brook" or "town on the rock". It may have been a descriptive name for a specific Choctaw settlement or village located near a brook or rocky terrain.
There are no known significant historical references or mentions of the name Talulah in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, it is likely that the name was used by the Choctaw people for centuries before being more widely adopted by European settlers and other cultures.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Talulah was Talulah Bankhead, an American actress born in 1902 and died in 1968. She was known for her husky voice and sultry persona on stage and in films during the 1920s and 1930s.
Another notable Talulah was Talulah Riley, a British actress born in 1985. She is known for her roles in films such as Pride & Prejudice, St Trinian's, and Inception.
Talulah Gosh was the name of an influential English indie pop band formed in 1986, named after an imaginary person. The band's quirky name and sound played a role in the emerging C86 scene of the late 1980s.
In the world of literature, Talulah Granger was a character in the novel "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler, published in 1939. She was portrayed as a cynical and manipulative young woman in the classic noir fiction novel.
Talulah Bankhead, the actress mentioned earlier, was also known for her wit and sharp tongue. One famous quote attributed to her is, "I'm as pure as the driven slush."
People
Talulah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Talulah 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
Talulah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Talulah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 522 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Talulah 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 656,618 US residents.
Is Talulah a common name?
We classify Talulah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 526 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Talulah most popular?
The single biggest year for Talulah was 2024, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Talulah is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Talulah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 313 people with the name Talulah, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,614 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 Talulah 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 Talulah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Talulah leans strongly female. 310 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Talulah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talulah is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Two or More Races (10.9%). 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 Talulah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Talulah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.9% (222 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 Talulah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Talulah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Talulah 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 Talulah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Talulah 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 Talulah 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 common is the name Talulah?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Talulah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.