Tesla
A name of obscure Slavic origin potentially related to words meaning "labor" or "reward".
Name Census estimates that about 2,636 living Americans carry the first name Tesla. It is a predominantly female name (96.4% of registrations). The average person named Tesla today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tesla births was 2016 (179 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tesla. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Tesla is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 98 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 130,028 Americans
Peak year
2016
179 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2020 SSA rank
#8,438
Tracked since 1985
Census
Tesla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,450 people with the first name Tesla, which placed it at #6,526 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
#6,526
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,450 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tesla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tesla is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.2%) and Two or More Races (7.1%). 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 Tesla 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 Tesla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.9% · 1,688
- Hispanic or Latino18.2% · 447
- Two or more races7.1% · 173
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 50
- Black or African American2.0% · 48
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 44
Gender
Gender distribution for Tesla
Tesla leans heavily female at 96.4% of total registrations, but 98 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tesla as a male name
- Ranked #10,482 in 2020
- 7 male births in 2020
- Peak: 2016 (18 births)
Tesla as a female name
- Ranked #8,438 in 2023
- 13 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2015 (167 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tesla leans strongly female. 2,338 people counted with this name were female (95.4%), compared with 113 male bearers (4.6%).
Popularity
Tesla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tesla from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,203 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tesla 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 Tesla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Teslas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Tesla, while Wisconsin, Idaho, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 45 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tesla
The name Tesla is a relatively modern invention that emerged in the late 19th century. It is not derived from an ancient language or culture. Instead, it originated as a surname in the Slavic region of what is now Croatia.
The name Tesla traces its roots to the Serbian inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. He was born in 1856 in the village of Smiljan, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time (now located in modern-day Croatia). His surname, Tesla, is believed to be derived from the Serbian word "tezak," meaning "peasant" or "worker."
Nikola Tesla himself did not name any children with the first name Tesla. However, his groundbreaking work in the fields of electricity and electromagnetics, including his contributions to the development of alternating current (AC) electrical systems, led to his name becoming widely recognized and celebrated.
Over time, some parents began naming their children Tesla as a tribute to the renowned inventor and his remarkable achievements. The first recorded instances of the name Tesla as a first name are from the early 20th century, shortly after Nikola Tesla's pioneering work gained widespread recognition.
One of the earliest notable individuals named Tesla was Tesla Müller, a Croatian-American writer and activist born in 1898. She was an advocate for Croatian independence and played a role in the Croatian national movement.
Another early individual named Tesla was Tesla Reichstein, a Swiss chemist born in 1897. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for his work on the hormones of the adrenal cortex.
In more recent times, the name Tesla has gained popularity, particularly among those who admire Nikola Tesla's scientific legacy or his visionary ideas. Some notable individuals named Tesla include:
1. Tesla Corin, an American actress born in 1982.
2. Tesla Monahan, an American actress and model born in 1988.
3. Tesla Rae, an American singer-songwriter born in 1991.
4. Tesla Dowmunt-Spire, a British actress born in 1996.
5. Tesla Kirn, an American photographer and visual artist born in 1996.
While the name Tesla is not rooted in ancient history or mythology, it has become a modern tribute to one of the most influential scientists and inventors of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla, whose pioneering work continues to shape our understanding of electricity and modern technology.
People
Tesla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tesla 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
Tesla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tesla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,636 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tesla 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 130,028 US residents.
Is Tesla a common name?
We classify Tesla as "Rare". It ranks above 94.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,686 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tesla most popular?
The single biggest year for Tesla was 2016, when 179 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tesla is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tesla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,450 people with the name Tesla, or 0.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,526 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 Tesla 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 Tesla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tesla leans strongly female. 2,338 people counted with this name were female (95.4%), compared with 113 male bearers (4.6%). 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 Tesla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tesla is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.2%) and Two or More Races (7.1%). 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 Tesla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tesla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.9% (1,688 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 Tesla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tesla a female name?
Yes, 96.4% of people registered as Tesla 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 Tesla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tesla 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 Tesla 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 share the name Tesla?
Want to know how many Americans are named Tesla? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.