Tommy
A diminutive masculine name derived from the Middle English given name Thomas.
Name Census estimates that about 123,064 living Americans carry the first name Tommy. It is a predominantly male name (98.4% of registrations). The average person named Tommy today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tommy births was 1947 (4,649 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tommy. 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 Tommy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Tommy is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,907 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Tommy have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
123K
~ 1 in 2,785 Americans
Peak year
1947
4,649 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#731
Tracked since 1880
Census
Tommy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 101,698 people with the first name Tommy, which placed it at #547 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
#547
National first-name rank
People counted
102K
101,698 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
33.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tommy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tommy is White at 62.4%. The next largest groups are Black (16.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%). 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 Tommy 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 Tommy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.4% · 63,508
- Black or African American16.8% · 17,108
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.5% · 8,650
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 7,706
- Two or more races3.1% · 3,199
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 1,527
Gender
Gender distribution for Tommy
Tommy leans heavily male at 98.4% of total registrations, but 2,907 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tommy as a male name
- Ranked #731 in 2024
- 358 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (4,594 births)
Tommy as a female name
- Ranked #5,120 in 2024
- 26 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1965 (62 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tommy appears almost entirely male. Of the 101,695 people counted with this name, 99.0% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Tommy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tommy 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 37,421 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
Tommy 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 Tommy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tommys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Tommy, while Delaware, Rhode Island, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,569 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tommy
The name Tommy is an English diminutive or hypocoristic form derived from the name Thomas. Thomas has Greek origins, with the meaning "twin" from the Aramaic word te'oma, meaning "a twin." The name was brought to Britain by the Normans after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Tommy dates back to the 16th century. In 1567, a Thomas Slingsby was referred to as "Tommy Slingsby" in the English State Papers. During this time, the name Tommy was often used as a familiar form or nickname for Thomas.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the first name Tommy. One of the earliest was Tommy Townshend, an English politician who lived from 1668 to 1738. He served as a Member of Parliament for various constituencies in the early 18th century.
Another famous Tommy was Tommy Atkins, a fictitious name used to represent a typical British soldier in the 19th century. The name was used in training materials and was widely adopted as a term for soldiers in the British Army.
In the world of sports, Tommy Burns was a Scottish boxer and world heavyweight champion who lived from 1881 to 1955. He held the world heavyweight title from 1906 to 1908 and was known for his exceptional defensive skills.
Tommy Dorsey, an American trombonist, composer, and bandleader, was a prominent figure in the big band era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in 1905 and passed away in 1956, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the world of jazz and popular music.
Tommy Cooper was an English comedian and magician who lived from 1921 to 1984. He was known for his unique brand of humor, which often involved intentionally botched magic tricks and iconic one-liners.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who bore the first name Tommy. Despite its origins as a diminutive form of Thomas, the name Tommy has established itself as a distinct and widely recognized name in its own right.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Tommy
People
Tommy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tommy 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
Tommy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tommy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 123,064 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tommy 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 2,785 US residents.
Is Tommy a common name?
We classify Tommy as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 181,214 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tommy most popular?
The single biggest year for Tommy was 1947, when 4,649 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tommy is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tommy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 101,698 people with the name Tommy, or 33.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #547 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 Tommy 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 Tommy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tommy appears almost entirely male. Of the 101,695 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Tommy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tommy is White at 62.4%. The next largest groups are Black (16.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%). 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 Tommy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tommy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.4% (63,508 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 Tommy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tommy a male name?
Yes, 98.4% of people registered as Tommy 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 Tommy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tommy 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 Tommy 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 Tommy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.