Tayana
A feminine name of Russian origin meaning "young forest".
Name Census estimates that about 789 living Americans carry the first name Tayana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tayana today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tayana births was 2003 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tayana. 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 Tayana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
789
~ 1 in 434,416 Americans
Peak year
2003
41 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,982
Tracked since 1975
Census
Tayana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 721 people with the first name Tayana, which placed it at #15,828 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
#15,828
National first-name rank
People counted
721
721 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
64.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tayana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tayana is Black at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.3%) and White (10.5%). 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 Tayana 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 Tayana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American64.5% · 465
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 89
- White10.5% · 76
- Two or more races9.8% · 71
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 9
Popularity
Tayana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tayana from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 290 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
Tayana 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 Tayana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tayanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. New York, Georgia, California recorded the most babies named Tayana, while Pennsylvania, Ohio, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tayana
The name Tayana has its origins in the Russian language. It is a feminine form of the male name Tainik, which is derived from the Russian word "taina," meaning "secret" or "mystery." The name gained popularity in Russia and other Slavic countries during the Middle Ages.
Tayana was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times, but it can be found in some historical records and literary works from the region. For instance, there is a mention of a woman named Tayana in a medieval Russian folktale, where she is portrayed as a wise and enigmatic character.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Tayana was a Russian noblewoman who lived in the 16th century. She was known as Tayana Ivanovna and was a prominent figure in the court of Ivan the Terrible.
Another notable figure with the name Tayana was Tayana Mikhailovna, a Russian painter and illustrator who lived in the late 19th century. She was renowned for her intricate and detailed works, many of which depicted scenes from Russian folklore and mythology.
In the 20th century, one of the most famous Tayanas was Tayana Vasilyevna Tolstaya, a Soviet writer and playwright. She was born in 1919 and is best known for her novels and plays that explored the complexities of life in the Soviet Union.
Another prominent Tayana was Tayana Alexandrovna Mukhina, a Soviet sculptor who was born in 1904. Her most famous work is the monumental sculpture "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman," which was created for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and became an iconic symbol of the Soviet Union.
Tayana Nikolayevna Yegorova was a Russian cross-country skier who competed in the 1990s and early 2000s. She won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals, including two gold medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
While the name Tayana is not as common as some other Russian names, it has a rich history and has been borne by notable figures across various fields, including literature, art, and sports.
People
Tayana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tayana 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
Tayana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tayana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 789 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tayana 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 434,416 US residents.
Is Tayana a common name?
We classify Tayana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 808 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tayana most popular?
The single biggest year for Tayana was 2003, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tayana is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tayana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 721 people with the name Tayana, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,828 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 Tayana 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 Tayana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tayana appears almost entirely female. Of the 718 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Tayana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tayana is Black at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.3%) and White (10.5%). 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 Tayana most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tayana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.5% (465 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 Tayana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tayana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tayana 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 Tayana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tayana 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 Tayana 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 called Tayana?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.