Tawn
An English name derived from the Persian "Tavān", meaning noble or honorable.
Name Census estimates that about 253 living Americans carry the first name Tawn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Tawn today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tawn births was 1969 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tawn. 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.
People living today
253
~ 1 in 1,354,760 Americans
Peak year
1969
28 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
1974 SSA rank
#5,920
Tracked since 1948
Census
Tawn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 405 people with the first name Tawn, which placed it at #23,978 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
#23,978
National first-name rank
People counted
405
405 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tawn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tawn is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (13.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.9%). 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 Tawn 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 Tawn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.6% · 278
- Black or African American13.8% · 56
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.9% · 48
- Two or more races3.5% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Tawn
Tawn leans heavily female at 89.4% of total registrations, but 32 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tawn as a male name
- Ranked #5,920 in 1974
- 5 male births in 1974
- Peak: 1970 (6 births)
Tawn as a female name
- Ranked #8,930 in 1983
- 7 female births in 1983
- Peak: 1969 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tawn on both sides of the split. Of the 409 people counted with this name, 122 were male (29.8%) and 287 were female (70.2%).
Popularity
Tawn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tawn from the 1940s through to the 1980s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 118 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
Tawn 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 Tawn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tawn
The given name Tawn has its origins in the ancient Germanic languages, specifically Old English and Old Norse. Its earliest recorded spelling was "Tān," which meant "twig" or "branch" in these ancient tongues. The name likely evolved from this word as a reference to a slender or willowy person.
In the early medieval period, the name Tawn was fairly common among Anglo-Saxon and Norse populations in what is now England and parts of Scandinavia. It appeared in several ancient texts and records from the 7th to 11th centuries, though its precise meaning and significance are not entirely clear.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tawn was Tawn the Reverent, a monk who lived in Northumbria, England in the late 7th century. He is mentioned in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede, a famous historian of the time.
Another notable bearer of the name was Tawn the Skald, a Norse poet and storyteller who lived in Iceland in the 10th century. He is credited with composing several famous sagas and poems that were preserved in the Icelandic literary tradition.
In the 12th century, a nobleman named Tawn of Wessex was a prominent figure in the court of King Henry II of England. He served as a trusted advisor and diplomat, and is mentioned in several contemporary chronicles.
During the Renaissance period, a Italian artist named Tawn Della Robbia (1469-1529) gained fame for his work in glazed terracotta sculpture. His most famous works can still be seen in churches and museums throughout Italy.
In more recent centuries, a British naval officer named Tawn Bligh (1725-1807) is remembered for his role in the famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789. Though he was initially cast adrift by the mutineers, he eventually made his way back to England and faced a court-martial.
People
Tawn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tawn 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
Tawn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tawn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 253 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tawn 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 1,354,760 US residents.
Is Tawn a common name?
We classify Tawn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 302 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tawn most popular?
The single biggest year for Tawn was 1969, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tawn is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tawn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 405 people with the name Tawn, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,978 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 Tawn 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 Tawn?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tawn on both sides of the split. Of the 409 people counted with this name, 122 were male (29.8%) and 287 were female (70.2%). 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 Tawn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tawn is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (13.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.9%). 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 Tawn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tawn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (278 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 Tawn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tawn a female name?
Yes, 89.4% of people registered as Tawn 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 Tawn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tawn 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 Tawn 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 Tawn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.