Trina
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "the third".
Name Census estimates that about 27,908 living Americans carry the first name Trina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Trina today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Trina births was 1970 (1,938 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Trina. 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 Trina with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Trina have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
28K
~ 1 in 12,282 Americans
Peak year
1970
1,938 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1971 SSA rank
#5,613
Tracked since 1893
Census
Trina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 28,336 people with the first name Trina, which placed it at #1,299 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
#1,299
National first-name rank
People counted
28K
28,336 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Trina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trina is White at 56.6%. The next largest groups are Black (26.1%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Trina 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 Trina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.6% · 16,030
- Black or African American26.1% · 7,405
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 2,058
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 1,331
- Two or more races3.8% · 1,072
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 440
Gender
Gender distribution for Trina
Out of the 32,585 babies given the name Trina since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Trina as a male name
- Ranked #5,613 in 1971
- 5 male births in 1971
- Peak: 1969 (10 births)
Trina as a female name
- Ranked #7,540 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (1,933 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trina appears almost entirely female. Of the 28,340 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Trina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Trina from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 12,145 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Trina 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 Trina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Trinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Trina, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 581 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Trina
The name Trina is a feminine given name derived from the Latin name Katharina, which in turn comes from the Greek name Aikaterine. Aikaterine is a combination of the Greek words "katharos" meaning "pure" and "heiros" meaning "consecrated."
Trina emerged as a pet form or shortened version of the name Katharina in various European languages, including Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The earliest recorded use of the name Trina dates back to the Middle Ages in Italy and other parts of southern Europe.
One of the earliest documented instances of the name Trina can be found in the writings of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). In his epic poem "The Divine Comedy," Dante mentions a woman named Trina in the Purgatorio section.
During the Renaissance period, the name Trina gained popularity among the Italian nobility and upper classes. A notable example is Trina Guicciardini (1500-1567), an Italian noblewoman and writer from Florence.
In the 17th century, the name Trina was also used in Spain and Portugal. One famous bearer of the name was Trina de Ledesma (1590-1666), a Spanish nun and mystic who founded the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Valladolid.
In the 18th century, the name Trina appeared in various literary works, including the novel "The Vicar of Wakefield" by Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), where a character named Trina is mentioned.
Another notable figure with the name Trina was Trina Krespi (1745-1828), an Italian painter and engraver from Venice, known for her portraits and religious works.
In the 19th century, the name Trina continued to be used in various parts of Europe, particularly in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. One example is Trina Mercadante (1809-1898), an Italian opera singer and composer from Naples.
While the name Trina has its roots in Europe, it has also been adopted in other parts of the world, including the United States, where it has been used as a given name for women of various ethnic backgrounds.
People
Trina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Trina 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
Trina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Trina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 27,908 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Trina 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 12,282 US residents.
Is Trina a common name?
We classify Trina as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32,585 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Trina most popular?
The single biggest year for Trina was 1970, when 1,938 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Trina is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Trina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 28,336 people with the name Trina, or 9.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,299 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 Trina 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 Trina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trina appears almost entirely female. Of the 28,340 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Trina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trina is White at 56.6%. The next largest groups are Black (26.1%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Trina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Trina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.6% (16,030 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 Trina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Trina a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Trina 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 Trina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Trina 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 Trina 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 common is the name Trina?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.