Ty
A masculine diminutive form of Tyler, meaning "tile maker".
Name Census estimates that about 46,263 living Americans carry the first name Ty. It is a predominantly male name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Ty today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ty births was 2005 (2,475 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ty. 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 Ty with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ty is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 732 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
46K
~ 1 in 7,409 Americans
Peak year
2005
2,475 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#857
Tracked since 1915
Census
Ty in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 47,425 people with the first name Ty, which placed it at #942 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
#942
National first-name rank
People counted
47K
47,425 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ty
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ty is White at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Black (7.3%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Ty 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 Ty at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.5% · 34,865
- Black or African American7.3% · 3,471
- Two or more races6.4% · 3,018
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 2,744
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 2,588
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 739
Gender
Gender distribution for Ty
Ty leans heavily male at 98.5% of total registrations, but 732 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ty as a male name
- Ranked #857 in 2024
- 283 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2005 (2,451 births)
Ty as a female name
- Ranked #14,953 in 2020
- 6 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2004 (30 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ty leans strongly male. 45,594 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 1,831 female bearers (3.9%).
Popularity
Ty: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ty from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 17,320 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ty 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 Ty during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Ty, while Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 890 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ty
The name Ty is a shortened form of the English name Tyler, which has its roots in the Old French word "tuilier," meaning "tiler" or "maker of tiles." This occupational surname emerged in the medieval era, referring to those who crafted tiles for roofs and floors. The name traces back to the Latin word "tegula," meaning "tile."
Ty gained popularity as a given name in its own right in the 20th century, particularly in the United States. Its brevity and modern sound contributed to its appeal as a standalone name rather than a diminutive.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Ty as a first name can be found in the 1893 birth records of Ty Cobb, the legendary American baseball player. Born Tyrus Raymond Cobb, he was nicknamed "Ty" from an early age and went on to become one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, playing for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics from 1905 to 1928.
Another notable historical figure with the name Ty was Ty Christian, an American football player and coach. Born in 1919, he played as a halfback for the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions in the 1940s and later served as the head coach for the University of Arizona and Stanford University.
In the literary world, Ty Templeton is a Canadian comic book writer and artist known for his work on titles such as Batman Adventures and Stig's Infant Literasee. He was born in 1962 and has been active in the industry since the 1980s.
Ty Harrington, born in 1960, is an American actor best known for his roles in television series like Reasonable Doubts and Point Pleasant. He has also appeared in several films, including Soapdish and The Evening Star.
In the realm of music, Ty Dolla $ign, born Tyrone William Griffin Jr. in 1985, is a American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He has collaborated with numerous artists and achieved commercial success with hits like "Paranoid" and "Or Nah."
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Ty, showcasing its enduring appeal across various disciplines and cultural spheres.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ty
People
Ty + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ty 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
Ty: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ty?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 46,263 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ty 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 7,409 US residents.
Is Ty a common name?
We classify Ty as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 48,026 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ty most popular?
The single biggest year for Ty was 2005, when 2,475 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ty is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ty in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 47,425 people with the name Ty, or 15.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #942 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 Ty 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 Ty?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ty leans strongly male. 45,594 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 1,831 female bearers (3.9%). 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 Ty?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ty is White at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Black (7.3%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Ty most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ty in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.5% (34,865 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 Ty in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ty a male name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Ty 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 Ty still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ty 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 Ty 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 Ty?
Want to know how many people share the name Ty? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.