Tollie
A Scottish variant of the given name Tallie, a diminutive of Natalie.
Name Census estimates that about 172 living Americans carry the first name Tollie. It is a predominantly male name (93.4% of registrations). The average person named Tollie today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tollie births was 1917 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tollie. 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
- • The typical person named Tollie is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Tollies were born before 1964.
People living today
172
~ 1 in 1,992,758 Americans
Peak year
1917
21 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1984 SSA rank
#4,930
Tracked since 1884
Census
Tollie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 283 people with the first name Tollie, which placed it at #30,644 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
#30,644
National first-name rank
People counted
283
283 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tollie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tollie is White at 58.3%. The next largest groups are Black (35.7%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Tollie 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 Tollie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.3% · 165
- Black or African American35.7% · 101
- Two or more races4.2% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Tollie
Tollie leans heavily male at 93.4% of total registrations, but 40 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tollie as a male name
- Ranked #4,930 in 1984
- 8 male births in 1984
- Peak: 1927 (20 births)
Tollie as a female name
- Ranked #13,135 in 1987
- 5 female births in 1987
- Peak: 1917 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tollie on both sides of the split. Of the 283 people counted with this name, 200 were male (70.7%) and 83 were female (29.3%).
Popularity
Tollie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tollie from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 131 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tollie 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 Tollie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tollies live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tollie
The name Tollie is believed to have its origins in the Old English language, which was spoken by the Anglo-Saxons in England and parts of Scotland from the 5th to the 11th century. It is thought to be derived from the Old English word "toll," which meant a payment or tax, suggesting that the name may have been given to individuals who worked as tax collectors or toll keepers.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tollie can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Tollie de Wyke," referring to a landowner in the village of Wyke, near Gillingham in Dorset.
During the Middle Ages, the name Tollie was relatively uncommon but not unheard of in England. One notable bearer of the name was Tollie de Broughton, a knight who fought in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, a decisive Scottish victory over the English in the First War of Scottish Independence.
In the 16th century, the name Tollie gained some prominence due to the Scottish Protestant reformer Tollie Cranstoun (1510-1600), who played a significant role in the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.
Another notable figure with the name Tollie was Tollie Tewndrow (1580-1663), an English merchant and philanthropist who made a fortune in the wool trade and donated generously to charitable causes in his hometown of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.
In the 19th century, the American Civil War saw a soldier named Tollie Stevenson (1836-1864) who served in the Union Army and was killed in action during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia.
While the name Tollie has never been particularly common, it has retained a presence throughout history, primarily in England and Scotland, as well as in some parts of the United States due to immigration from the British Isles.
People
Tollie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tollie 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
Tollie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tollie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 172 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tollie 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 1,992,758 US residents.
Is Tollie a common name?
We classify Tollie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 606 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tollie most popular?
The single biggest year for Tollie was 1917, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tollie is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tollie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 283 people with the name Tollie, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,644 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 Tollie 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 Tollie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tollie on both sides of the split. Of the 283 people counted with this name, 200 were male (70.7%) and 83 were female (29.3%). 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 Tollie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tollie is White at 58.3%. The next largest groups are Black (35.7%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Tollie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tollie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.3% (165 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 Tollie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tollie a male name?
Yes, 93.4% of people registered as Tollie 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 Tollie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tollie 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 Tollie 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 Tollie?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Tollie, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.