Tom
A masculine name of English origin meaning "twin".
Name Census estimates that about 73,314 living Americans carry the first name Tom. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tom today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tom births was 1959 (5,080 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tom. 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 Tom with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Tom is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 614 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Tom is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Toms were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Tom have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
73K
~ 1 in 4,675 Americans
Peak year
1959
5,080 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,822
Tracked since 1880
Census
Tom in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 118,359 people with the first name Tom, which placed it at #478 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
#478
National first-name rank
People counted
118K
118,359 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
39.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tom
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tom is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Tom 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 Tom at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.6% · 98,994
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 7,929
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 4,414
- Black or African American3.4% · 3,971
- Two or more races1.8% · 2,123
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 928
Gender
Gender distribution for Tom
Out of the 140,303 babies given the name Tom since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Tom as a male name
- Ranked #2,822 in 2024
- 46 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (5,068 births)
Tom as a female name
- Ranked #8,093 in 1976
- 7 female births in 1976
- Peak: 1925 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tom appears almost entirely male. Of the 118,350 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Tom: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tom from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 29,983 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tom 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 Tom during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Toms live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Tom, while Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,464 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tom
The name Tom is a diminutive form of the English name Thomas, which derived from the Aramaic name Toma. Toma in turn came from the word te'oma, meaning "twin." The name Thomas was borne by one of the twelve apostles of Christ, who was also known as Didymus, a Greek word meaning "twin."
The first recorded use of the name Tom dates back to the 13th century, when it appeared as a nickname for Thomas in England. It gained popularity as a standalone name in the 16th century. During the Middle Ages, the name Thomas was often abbreviated as Tom or Thom in informal settings.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tom can be found in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the renowned English poet and author of the Canterbury Tales. In the prologue to the Tales, Chaucer refers to a character named Tom the Reeve.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tom. One of the most famous is Thomas More (1478-1535), an English Renaissance humanist, scholar, and Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of King Henry VIII. He was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1935 and is known for his work Utopia.
Another well-known bearer of the name is Tom Paine (1737-1809), an English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary. He is best known for his influential pamphlets, including "Common Sense" and "The Rights of Man," which played a crucial role in shaping the American and French Revolutions.
Tom Sawyer, the fictional character created by Mark Twain in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), is another iconic figure associated with the name. The mischievous and adventurous Tom Sawyer has become a cultural icon, representing the spirit of childhood and freedom.
In the world of sports, Tom Brady (born 1977) is a legendary American football quarterback who played for the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the National Football League (NFL), having won a record seven Super Bowl championships.
Tom Hanks (born 1956) is an acclaimed American actor and filmmaker who has won numerous awards, including two Academy Awards for Best Actor. He is known for his versatile performances in films such as Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, and Cast Away.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Tom
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Tom Allen
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Tom Arnold
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Tom Berenger
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Tom Bosley
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Tom Brady
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Tom Byron
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Tom Clegg
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Tom Coburn
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Tom Cole
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Tom Cruise
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Tom Davis
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Tom Dey
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Tom Dicillo
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Tom Ewell
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Tom Fears
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Tom Feeney
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Tom Felton
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Tom Flores
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Tom Forman
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Tom Gordon
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Tom Graeff
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Tom Green
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Tom Hanks
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Tom Harkin
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Tom Holland
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Tom Hulce
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Tom Hunsinger
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Tom Jones
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Tom Keene
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Tom Lantos
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Tom Latham
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Tom Laughlin
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Tom Mack
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Tom Mix
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Tom Morris
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Tom Price
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Tom Riddle
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Tom Savini
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Tom Scott
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Tom Seaver
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Tom Selleck
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Tom Sizemore
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Tom Skerritt
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Tom Tyler
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Tom Udall
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Tom Villard
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Tom Waits
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Tom Watson
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Tom Welling
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Tom Wilkinson
People
Tom + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tom 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
Tom: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tom?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 73,314 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tom 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 4,675 US residents.
Is Tom a common name?
We classify Tom as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 140,303 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tom most popular?
The single biggest year for Tom was 1959, when 5,080 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tom is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tom in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 118,359 people with the name Tom, or 39.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #478 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 Tom 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 Tom?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tom appears almost entirely male. Of the 118,350 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Tom?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tom is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Tom most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tom in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.6% (98,994 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 Tom in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tom a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Tom 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 Tom still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tom 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 Tom 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 Tom as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.