Tana
A feminine Sanskrit name meaning "young girl" or "small".
Name Census estimates that about 7,672 living Americans carry the first name Tana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tana today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tana births was 1962 (241 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tana. 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 Tana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.7K
~ 1 in 44,676 Americans
Peak year
1962
241 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
1975 SSA rank
#5,384
Tracked since 1924
Census
Tana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,201 people with the first name Tana, which placed it at #2,818 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
#2,818
National first-name rank
People counted
8.2K
8,201 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tana is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.2%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Tana 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 Tana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.9% · 6,634
- Black or African American6.2% · 506
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 428
- Two or more races3.8% · 313
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 194
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 126
Gender
Gender distribution for Tana
Out of the 9,275 babies given the name Tana since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Tana as a male name
- Ranked #5,384 in 1975
- 6 male births in 1975
- Peak: 1975 (6 births)
Tana as a female name
- Ranked #8,347 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (241 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tana leans strongly female. 8,081 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 120 male bearers (1.5%).
Popularity
Tana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tana from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 2,063 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tana 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 Tana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Tana, while Wyoming, New Jersey, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 134 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tana
The name Tana has its origins in various cultures and languages around the world. It is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit word "tana," which means "body" or "self." This ancient Indian language is the root of many modern Indo-Aryan languages spoken in South Asia.
In Hawaiian culture, the name Tana is derived from the word "tana," which means "to spread out" or "to unfold." It is often associated with concepts of growth, expansion, and exploration. This name has been used in Hawaiian tradition for centuries.
The name Tana has also been found in ancient Egyptian records, where it was used as a shortened form of the name "Tanakhten," which means "the living one." This name appeared in hieroglyphic inscriptions and was associated with the concept of eternal life in Egyptian mythology.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tana dates back to the 5th century BC, when a Greek philosopher named Tana of Gortyn lived on the island of Crete. He was known for his contributions to the field of ethics and his teachings on the nature of virtue.
In the 12th century, Tana Tomichi was a renowned Japanese samurai warrior who fought during the Genpei War, a conflict between the Minamoto and Taira clans. He was known for his bravery and loyalty, and his name has been immortalized in Japanese history.
During the Renaissance period, Tana Grillo was an Italian painter and architect from Genoa, who lived between 1568 and 1638. Her artistic works, including frescoes and architectural designs, can still be found in various churches and buildings in Italy.
In the 19th century, Tana Umaga was a prominent Māori chief and leader from New Zealand. He played a significant role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which established the British sovereignty over the islands while preserving Māori land rights and chieftainship.
Another notable figure with the name Tana was Tana Mongeau, a French explorer and adventurer who lived from 1892 to 1972. She was one of the first women to traverse the Sahara Desert and documented her experiences in her book, "Across the Sahara on Foot."
While the name Tana has been used across different cultures and time periods, its meanings often revolve around concepts of life, growth, and exploration, reflecting the diverse origins and interpretations of this name throughout history.
People
Tana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tana 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
Tana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,672 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tana 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 44,676 US residents.
Is Tana a common name?
We classify Tana as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,275 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tana most popular?
The single biggest year for Tana was 1962, when 241 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tana is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,201 people with the name Tana, or 2.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,818 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 Tana 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 Tana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tana leans strongly female. 8,081 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 120 male bearers (1.5%). 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 Tana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tana is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.2%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Tana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.9% (6,634 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 Tana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tana a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Tana 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 Tana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tana 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 Tana 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 Tana?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.