Tonantzin
Nahuatl name meaning "Our Revered Mother", relating to the Virgin Mary.
Name Census estimates that about 249 living Americans carry the first name Tonantzin. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tonantzin today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tonantzin births was 2011 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tonantzin. 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.
People living today
249
~ 1 in 1,376,523 Americans
Peak year
2011
24 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,990
Tracked since 1978
Census
Tonantzin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 234 people with the first name Tonantzin, which placed it at #34,758 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
#34,758
National first-name rank
People counted
234
234 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
99.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tonantzin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tonantzin is Hispanic at 99.1%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%). 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 Tonantzin 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 Tonantzin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino99.1% · 232
- White0.9% · 2
Popularity
Tonantzin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tonantzin from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 119 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
Tonantzin 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 Tonantzin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tonantzins live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tonantzin
The name Tonantzin originates from the Nahuatl language spoken by the Aztecs and other Nahua peoples of central Mexico. It dates back to the pre-Columbian era, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Tonantzin is derived from the Nahuatl words "tonantzi" meaning "our revered mother" and "in" which is a reverential suffix.
Tonantzin was the name of a maternal deity worshipped by the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures. She was a mother goddess associated with fertility, childbirth, and the earth. The Spaniards later linked Tonantzin with the Virgin Mary, leading to the syncretism of indigenous and Christian beliefs that became common throughout colonial-era Mexico.
One of the earliest known references to the name Tonantzin comes from the Codex Borbonicus, an Aztec codex from the mid-16th century that depicts the goddess Tonantzin. The name also appears in the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century ethnographic work written by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, which describes Aztec culture and religion.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Tonantzin. One of the earliest was Tonantzin Guadalupe, a 17th-century Indigenous woman from Mexico who was believed to be the first person to witness the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.
Another notable Tonantzin was Tonantzin Tlacaelel (c. 1397-1487), a powerful Aztec ruler and military strategist who served as the principal adviser to the emperor Moctezuma I. She is credited with helping to expand the Aztec Empire and consolidating its power in the Valley of Mexico.
In the 20th century, Tonantzin Gutiérrez (1917-2008) was a Mexican artist and activist known for her paintings and murals depicting Indigenous themes and advocating for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Mexico.
Tonantzin Rodríguez (born 1964) is a contemporary Mexican writer and journalist who has published several novels and short story collections exploring themes of identity, gender, and Mexican culture.
Finally, Tonantzin Yerachmiel (born 1972) is a Mexican-American artist and educator who works with various media, including painting, sculpture, and installations, often drawing inspiration from her Indigenous and Jewish heritage.
People
Tonantzin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tonantzin 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
Tonantzin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tonantzin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 249 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tonantzin 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 1,376,523 US residents.
Is Tonantzin a common name?
We classify Tonantzin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 252 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tonantzin most popular?
The single biggest year for Tonantzin was 2011, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tonantzin is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tonantzin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 234 people with the name Tonantzin, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,758 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 Tonantzin 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 Tonantzin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tonantzin appears almost entirely female. Of the 239 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Tonantzin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tonantzin is Hispanic at 99.1%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%). 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 Tonantzin most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Tonantzin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 99.1% (232 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 Tonantzin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tonantzin a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tonantzin 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 Tonantzin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tonantzin 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 Tonantzin 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 Americans are named Tonantzin?
You can see how many people have the name Tonantzin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.