Tanis
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "immortal".
Name Census estimates that about 1,299 living Americans carry the first name Tanis. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 65.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Tanis today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tanis births was 1948 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tanis. 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 Tanis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Tanis was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 263,860 Americans
Peak year
1948
43 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,142
Tracked since 1926
Census
Tanis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,503 people with the first name Tanis, which placed it at #9,298 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
#9,298
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,503 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tanis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tanis is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Tanis 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 Tanis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.4% · 1,118
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 148
- Black or African American7.9% · 119
- Two or more races5.4% · 81
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Tanis
Tanis is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,529 total registrations, 535 (35.0%) were male and 994 (65.0%) were female.
Tanis as a male name
- Ranked #12,142 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (30 births)
Tanis as a female name
- Ranked #15,027 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1948 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tanis on both sides of the split. Of the 1,501 people counted with this name, 520 were male (34.6%) and 981 were female (65.4%).
Popularity
Tanis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tanis from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 278 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tanis 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 Tanis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tanis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Tanis, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tanis
The name Tanis has its origins in ancient Egypt, dating back to the second millennium BC. It is derived from the ancient Egyptian city of Djanet, known as Tanis to the Greeks. This city was located in the Nile Delta region and served as the capital of ancient Egypt during parts of the 21st and 22nd dynasties.
Tanis was an important religious and political center in ancient Egypt. It was home to the famous Tanis Stone, a carved granite slab that contains a decree from the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy V, providing valuable insights into the history and culture of that era.
The name Tanis appeared in various ancient Egyptian texts and inscriptions, often referring to the city itself or individuals associated with it. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is found in the Papyrus Wilbour, a collection of ancient Egyptian texts from the 21st dynasty, circa 1069-945 BC.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Tanis. One of the most famous was Tanis, the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh Osorkon II, who ruled during the 22nd dynasty around 850 BC. She was a powerful figure in her own right and played a significant role in the political and religious affairs of her time.
Another historical figure with the name Tanis was a Roman philosopher and writer who lived in the 2nd century AD. Known as Tanis the Platonic, he was a prominent figure in the Platonic philosophical tradition and authored several works that are now lost.
In the Middle Ages, Tanis was the name of a 12th-century bishop of Avranches in Normandy, France. He was a prominent figure in the Catholic Church and played a role in the political and religious affairs of his time.
During the Renaissance period, Tanis was the name of an Italian painter and architect from the 16th century. He was known for his contributions to the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance and was associated with the Mannerist style.
In more recent times, Tanis was the name of a French-Canadian explorer and fur trader who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was known for his travels and explorations in the Canadian Northwest and his interactions with various Native American tribes.
People
Tanis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tanis 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
Tanis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tanis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,299 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tanis 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 263,860 US residents.
Is Tanis a common name?
We classify Tanis as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,529 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tanis most popular?
The single biggest year for Tanis was 1948, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tanis is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tanis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,503 people with the name Tanis, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,298 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 Tanis 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 Tanis?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tanis on both sides of the split. Of the 1,501 people counted with this name, 520 were male (34.6%) and 981 were female (65.4%). 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 Tanis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tanis is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Tanis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tanis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.4% (1,118 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 Tanis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tanis a female name?
Yes, 65.0% of people registered as Tanis 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 Tanis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tanis 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 Tanis 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 have Tanis as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Tanis on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.