Tulip
A feminine name derived from the flower with the same name.
Name Census estimates that about 280 living Americans carry the first name Tulip. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tulip today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tulip births was 2018 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tulip. 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 Tulip with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
280
~ 1 in 1,224,123 Americans
Peak year
2018
32 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,756
Tracked since 2006
Census
Tulip in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 252 people with the first name Tulip, which placed it at #33,030 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
#33,030
National first-name rank
People counted
252
252 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tulip
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tulip is White at 44.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (25.8%) and Hispanic (14.7%). 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 Tulip 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 Tulip at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.0% · 111
- Asian and Pacific Islander25.8% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino14.7% · 37
- Black or African American9.5% · 24
- Two or more races4.8% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 3
Popularity
Tulip: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tulip from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 143 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tulip 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 Tulip during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tulips live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tulip
The given name Tulip is derived from the Persian word "tulipan," which refers to the popular flowering plant that originated in the Ottoman Empire, now modern-day Turkey. The tulip flower was highly prized in the 16th century and became a symbol of wealth and status during the Dutch Golden Age.
While the name Tulip is not commonly used as a first name, it has been recorded in various cultures and time periods. One of the earliest known references to the name can be found in the writings of the 17th-century Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius, who is credited with introducing the tulip to Western Europe.
In literature, the name Tulip appears in the novel "The Black Tulip" by Alexandre Dumas, published in 1850. The story revolves around a fictional tulip bulb and the obsession of horticulturists during the Dutch Tulip Mania in the 17th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tulip was Tulip Monteith, a Scottish woman born in 1856. She was a notable figure in the women's suffrage movement and campaigned for women's rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Another notable individual was Tulip Fever, an American painter and illustrator born in 1909. She was known for her vibrant and colorful paintings that often featured floral motifs, including the tulip flower.
In the world of music, Tulip Mania was the stage name of an American singer-songwriter born in 1968. She gained recognition for her unique blend of folk and alternative rock music, and her album "Tulip Fever" was critically acclaimed in the 1990s.
Tulip Mazumdar, born in 1922, was an Indian freedom fighter and political activist who fought against British colonial rule. She was a prominent member of the Indian National Congress and played a significant role in the struggle for India's independence.
Another noteworthy figure was Tulip Chishi, a Tibetan Buddhist nun and activist born in 1976. She advocated for the rights of Tibetan refugees and worked to preserve Tibetan culture and traditions in the face of Chinese oppression.
People
Tulip + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tulip 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
Tulip: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tulip?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 280 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tulip 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 1,224,123 US residents.
Is Tulip a common name?
We classify Tulip as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 282 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tulip most popular?
The single biggest year for Tulip was 2018, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tulip is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tulip in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 252 people with the name Tulip, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,030 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 Tulip 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 Tulip?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tulip leans strongly female. 247 people counted with this name were female (96.9%), compared with 8 male bearers (3.1%). 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 Tulip?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tulip is White at 44.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (25.8%) and Hispanic (14.7%). 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 Tulip most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tulip in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.0% (111 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 Tulip in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tulip a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tulip 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 Tulip still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tulip 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 Tulip 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 Tulip?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.