Tiger
A name symbolizing power, strength, and fierceness in many cultures.
Name Census estimates that about 1,262 living Americans carry the first name Tiger. It is a predominantly male name (95.2% of registrations). The average person named Tiger today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tiger births was 2010 (130 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tiger. 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 Tiger with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Tiger is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 62 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 271,596 Americans
Peak year
2010
130 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,399
Tracked since 1962
Census
Tiger in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,495 people with the first name Tiger, which placed it at #9,334 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
#9,334
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,495 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tiger
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiger is White at 35.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (27.6%) and Black (13.5%). 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 Tiger 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 Tiger at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.6% · 532
- Asian and Pacific Islander27.6% · 413
- Black or African American13.5% · 202
- Two or more races10.7% · 160
- Hispanic or Latino10.6% · 158
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 30
Gender
Gender distribution for Tiger
Tiger leans heavily male at 95.2% of total registrations, but 62 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tiger as a male name
- Ranked #4,399 in 2024
- 24 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (130 births)
Tiger as a female name
- Ranked #11,159 in 2022
- 9 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2001 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiger leans strongly male. 1,294 people counted with this name were male (86.5%), compared with 202 female bearers (13.5%).
Popularity
Tiger: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tiger from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 420 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Tiger remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tiger 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 Tiger during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tigers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Tiger, while Illinois, Minnesota, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tiger
The name Tiger is believed to have originated from the English word "tiger," which itself comes from the ancient Greek word "tigris." The word "tigris" refers to the Tigris River, which flows through modern-day Iraq and was once home to tigers in the region.
The name Tiger is thought to have first appeared in the English-speaking world during the 16th century, as Europeans began exploring and colonizing parts of Asia and encountering tigers for the first time. The name was likely given to children to symbolize strength, power, and courage, characteristics associated with the majestic big cat.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Tiger can be found in William Shakespeare's play, "Henry VI, Part 1," written around 1591. In the play, a character named Tiger is mentioned, though it is unclear whether this was a real person or a fictional character.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Tiger. One of the earliest was Tiger Dunlap (1794-1857), an American frontiersman and trapper who lived in the American West during the 19th century.
Another famous Tiger was Tiger Flowers (1895-1927), an American blues musician from Arkansas who helped popularize the Delta blues style in the 1920s.
In the realm of sports, Tiger Woods (born 1975) is undoubtedly the most famous bearer of the name. Woods is a professional golfer who has won numerous major championships and is considered one of the greatest golfers of all time.
Tiger Muñoz (1947-2022) was a Mexican-American artist and activist known for his vibrant murals and advocacy for Chicano rights in Los Angeles.
Tiger Mask (born 1958) is the ring name of Satoru Sayama, a Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist who popularized the Tiger Mask character in the 1980s.
While the name Tiger is not as common as some other English names, its unique and powerful connotations have ensured its enduring appeal across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Tiger
People
Tiger + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tiger 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
Tiger: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tiger?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,262 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tiger 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 271,596 US residents.
Is Tiger a common name?
We classify Tiger as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,279 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tiger most popular?
The single biggest year for Tiger was 2010, when 130 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tiger is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tiger in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,495 people with the name Tiger, or 0.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,334 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 Tiger 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 Tiger?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiger leans strongly male. 1,294 people counted with this name were male (86.5%), compared with 202 female bearers (13.5%). 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 Tiger?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiger is White at 35.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (27.6%) and Black (13.5%). 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 Tiger most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tiger in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.6% (532 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 Tiger in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tiger a male name?
Yes, 95.2% of people registered as Tiger in the SSA data are male. 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 Tiger still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tiger 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 Tiger 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 Tiger?
Want to know how many people have the name Tiger? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.