Tysen
Variant spelling of the English surname-derived name Tyson, meaning "son of Tie".
Name Census estimates that about 1,627 living Americans carry the first name Tysen. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Tysen today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tysen births was 2010 (93 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tysen. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 210,666 Americans
Peak year
2010
93 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,134
Tracked since 1974
Census
Tysen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,377 people with the first name Tysen, which placed it at #9,883 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
#9,883
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,377 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tysen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tysen is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Black (13.1%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). 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 Tysen 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 Tysen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.2% · 856
- Black or African American13.1% · 180
- Two or more races10.6% · 146
- Hispanic or Latino8.7% · 120
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 57
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 18
Gender
Gender distribution for Tysen
Out of the 1,653 babies given the name Tysen since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Tysen as a male name
- Ranked #6,134 in 2024
- 15 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (93 births)
Tysen as a female name
- Ranked #16,815 in 1999
- 5 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1975 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tysen leans strongly male. 1,326 people counted with this name were male (97.0%), compared with 41 female bearers (3.0%).
Popularity
Tysen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tysen from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 644 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
Tysen 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 Tysen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tysens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Utah, California, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Tysen, while Ohio, Missouri, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tysen
The name Tysen is of Scandinavian origin, believed to have derived from the Old Norse name Tyri, which was a variant of the name Tyr. Tyr was the name of the Norse god of war and law, one of the principal deities in Norse mythology. The name Tyri was a diminutive form of this name, and over time, it evolved into various spellings such as Tysen, Thyssen, and Thyson.
The earliest recorded use of the name Tysen dates back to the Viking Age in Scandinavia, around the 8th to 11th centuries. During this time, the name was primarily used by the Norse people living in parts of modern-day Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland.
In ancient Norse texts and sagas, there are references to individuals bearing names derived from Tyr, although specific mentions of the name Tysen are scarce. One notable figure from Norse mythology was Tyr himself, who was depicted as a courageous and honorable god, known for his bravery in battle and his role as a protector of justice.
As the Vikings expanded their reach through exploration and conquest, the name Tysen likely spread to other parts of Europe. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Tysen Olafsson, a Norwegian chieftain who lived in the 11th century and was known for his leadership during the Norse expeditions to the British Isles.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals bearing the name Tysen. One such figure was Tysen van der Heyden, a Dutch Golden Age painter who lived from 1657 to 1712. His works, which included landscapes and architectural scenes, are highly regarded in the Dutch art tradition.
Another notable Tysen was Tysen Bunker, an American soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was born in 1761 and is remembered for his bravery during the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, where he served as a private in the Continental Army.
In the 19th century, Tysen Sørensen was a Norwegian businessperson and industrialist who lived from 1818 to 1887. He founded the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Germany, which became one of the largest industrial companies in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
More recently, Tysen Knight was an American professional basketball player who played in the NBA from 2003 to 2010. He was born in 1981 and played for several teams, including the Memphis Grizzlies and the Cleveland Cavaliers, during his professional career.
People
Tysen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tysen 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
Tysen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tysen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,627 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tysen 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 210,666 US residents.
Is Tysen a common name?
We classify Tysen as "Rare". It ranks above 92.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,653 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tysen most popular?
The single biggest year for Tysen was 2010, when 93 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tysen is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tysen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,377 people with the name Tysen, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,883 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 Tysen 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 Tysen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tysen leans strongly male. 1,326 people counted with this name were male (97.0%), compared with 41 female bearers (3.0%). 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 Tysen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tysen is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Black (13.1%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). 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 Tysen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tysen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.2% (856 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 Tysen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tysen a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Tysen 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 Tysen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tysen 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 Tysen 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 share the name Tysen?
Want to know how many people share the name Tysen? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.