Tara
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "star" or "goddess".
Name Census estimates that about 161,832 living Americans carry the first name Tara. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tara today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tara births was 1972 (7,268 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tara. 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 Tara with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Tara is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 543 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Tara have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
162K
~ 1 in 2,118 Americans
Peak year
1972
7,268 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
1999 SSA rank
#1,021
Tracked since 1939
Census
Tara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 158,364 people with the first name Tara, which placed it at #352 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
#352
National first-name rank
People counted
158K
158,364 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
52.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tara is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (8.8%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Tara 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 Tara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 126,461
- Black or African American8.8% · 13,883
- Two or more races4.1% · 6,507
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 5,771
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 4,445
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 1,297
Gender
Gender distribution for Tara
Out of the 176,033 babies given the name Tara since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Tara as a male name
- Ranked #11,409 in 1999
- 5 male births in 1999
- Peak: 1972 (34 births)
Tara as a female name
- Ranked #1,021 in 2024
- 247 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1972 (7,234 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tara appears almost entirely female. Of the 158,365 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Tara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tara from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 65,324 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tara 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 Tara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Taras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Tara, while Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,400 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tara
The name Tara has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language of India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word 'tara', which means 'star', 'goddess', or 'transcendent one'. The name has been popular in various cultures and religions across the Indian subcontinent for centuries.
In Hinduism, Tara is the name of a revered Buddhist goddess of compassion and wisdom, who is believed to guide souls towards enlightenment. She is often portrayed with green or blue complexion, representing the colors of nature and the cosmos. The earliest known references to the goddess Tara can be found in ancient Buddhist texts and scriptures dating back to the 3rd century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Tara is found in the Mahabharata, a renowned Hindu epic dating back to around the 8th century BCE. In the epic, Tara is the name of a princess who becomes the second wife of King Vali.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tara. One of the most famous was Tara Devi (1858-1918), an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer who played a pivotal role in the Indian independence movement against British rule.
Another prominent figure was Tara Shukla (1914-1983), an Indian feminist and writer who fought for women's rights and authored several novels and short stories exploring social issues of her time.
In the realm of literature, Tara was the name of a central character in the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1936. The character, Tara O'Hara, was the name of a plantation owned by the fictional O'Hara family in the American South during the Civil War era.
In the world of entertainment, Tara Reid (born 1975) is an American actress and model who rose to fame for her roles in popular films like "American Pie" and "Van Wilder".
Another notable individual was Tara Westover (born 1986), an American author and scholar whose memoir "Educated" recounts her journey from a survivalist family in rural Idaho to earning a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
The name Tara has maintained its popularity over the centuries, transcending cultural boundaries and carrying various meanings and associations across different regions and belief systems.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Tara
People
Tara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tara 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
Tara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 161,832 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tara 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 2,118 US residents.
Is Tara a common name?
We classify Tara as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 176,033 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tara most popular?
The single biggest year for Tara was 1972, when 7,268 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tara is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 158,364 people with the name Tara, or 52.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #352 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 Tara 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 Tara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tara appears almost entirely female. Of the 158,365 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Tara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tara is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (8.8%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Tara most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (126,461 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 Tara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tara a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Tara 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 Tara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tara 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 Tara 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 the name Tara?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.