Tamar
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "palm tree" or "date palm".
Name Census estimates that about 6,456 living Americans carry the first name Tamar. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Tamar today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tamar births was 1977 (149 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tamar. 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 Tamar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.5K
~ 1 in 53,091 Americans
Peak year
1977
149 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2023 SSA rank
#2,374
Tracked since 1915
Census
Tamar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,139 people with the first name Tamar, which placed it at #3,088 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
#3,088
National first-name rank
People counted
7.1K
7,139 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tamar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamar is White at 61.3%. The next largest groups are Black (27.4%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Tamar 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 Tamar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.3% · 4,374
- Black or African American27.4% · 1,954
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 464
- Two or more races3.3% · 236
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 87
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 24
Gender
Gender distribution for Tamar
Tamar leans heavily female at 87.3% of total registrations, but 885 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tamar as a male name
- Ranked #10,672 in 2023
- 7 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2000 (42 births)
Tamar as a female name
- Ranked #2,374 in 2024
- 77 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (133 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tamar leans strongly female. 6,434 people counted with this name were female (90.1%), compared with 708 male bearers (9.9%).
Popularity
Tamar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tamar from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,273 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
Tamar 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 Tamar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tamars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Tamar, while Louisiana, Virginia, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 245 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tamar
The name Tamar is of Hebrew origin, derived from the Semitic root "tmr," which means "date palm." It's a feminine name that has been used for thousands of years.
In the Hebrew Bible, Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Her story is recounted in Genesis 38, where she resorts to trickery to become pregnant by Judah and give birth to twin sons, Perez and Zerah. This incident is significant in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, as Perez is an ancestor of the Messiah.
The name Tamar also appears in the Book of Samuel, referring to a daughter of King David. She was famously raped by her half-brother Amnon, an act that ultimately led to Amnon's death at the hands of Tamar's brother Absalom.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tamar dates back to the 9th century BCE, found on an ostracon (pottery shard) from the ancient city of Arad in modern-day Israel.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tamar. In the 1st century CE, Tamar was the wife of the Jewish leader Anilai, who led a revolt against the Roman Empire in Mesopotamia. Tamar of Georgia (c. 1160-1213) was a powerful queen regnant of the Bagrationi dynasty, known for her military campaigns and patronage of the arts.
Tamar the Great (c. 1200-1264) was a Mongol princess and the wife of Hulagu Khan, the founder of the Ilkhanate dynasty in Persia. She played a crucial role in the expansion of the Mongol Empire and the development of trade routes.
Tamar Kali (c. 1585-1655) was a prominent female poet and composer in the Mughal Empire, renowned for her contributions to the development of the Brajbhasha literary tradition.
Tamar of Georgia (1958-) is a contemporary Georgian politician and diplomat, serving as the first female president of Georgia from 2007 to 2013.
People
Tamar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tamar 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
Tamar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tamar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,456 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tamar 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 53,091 US residents.
Is Tamar a common name?
We classify Tamar as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,968 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tamar most popular?
The single biggest year for Tamar was 1977, when 149 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tamar is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tamar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,139 people with the name Tamar, or 2.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,088 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 Tamar 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 Tamar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tamar leans strongly female. 6,434 people counted with this name were female (90.1%), compared with 708 male bearers (9.9%). 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 Tamar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamar is White at 61.3%. The next largest groups are Black (27.4%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Tamar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tamar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.3% (4,374 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 Tamar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tamar a female name?
Yes, 87.3% of people registered as Tamar 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 Tamar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tamar 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 Tamar 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 Americans are named Tamar?
See how many people have the name Tamar on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.