Tabiatha
A feminine name of Aramaic origin meaning "gazelle" or "graceful".
Name Census estimates that about 21 living Americans carry the first name Tabiatha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tabiatha today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tabiatha births was 1971 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tabiatha. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Tabiatha. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
21
~ 1 in 16,321,635 Americans
Peak year
1971
7 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
1981 SSA rank
#10,247
Tracked since 1970
Popularity
Tabiatha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tabiatha from the 1970s through to the 1980s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 17 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Tabiatha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tabiatha 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 Tabiatha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tabiatha
The name Tabiatha is derived from the Aramaic name Tavitha, which means "gazelle" or "graceful one." It has its roots in ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East, particularly in the region of ancient Syria and Mesopotamia.
The earliest known record of the name Tabiatha appears in the New Testament of the Bible, where a woman named Tavitha (Greek spelling of the Aramaic name) is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. She was a disciple from the town of Joppa, known for her charitable works, who was miraculously raised from the dead by Saint Peter.
In the Middle Ages, the name Tabiatha was relatively uncommon, but it gained some popularity in medieval Europe, particularly in England and France. One notable figure from this period was Tabiatha of Normandy (c. 1055 - c. 1125), a French noblewoman and the wife of Robert Fitzwilliam, a Norman baron.
During the Renaissance, the name Tabiatha experienced a resurgence in popularity, especially among Protestant Christians who embraced biblical names. One notable figure from this time was Tabiatha Lowe (c. 1570 - c. 1640), an English Puritan writer and religious activist.
In the 17th century, Tabiatha Milton (1624 - 1637) was the beloved third wife of the famous English poet John Milton. Although she died young, her name was immortalized in Milton's poetry.
Another notable Tabiatha from the 18th century was Tabiatha Bramble (c. 1730 - c. 1790), a fictional character created by the English novelist Tobias Smollett in his work "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker." She was portrayed as a comically cantankerous and eccentric elderly woman.
In the 19th century, Tabiatha Gustavus Vasa (1820 - 1892) was a Swedish-American author and advocate for women's rights, known for her writings on the abolition of slavery and the promotion of women's suffrage.
People
Tabiatha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tabiatha 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
Tabiatha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tabiatha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tabiatha 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 16,321,635 US residents.
Is Tabiatha a common name?
We classify Tabiatha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 40.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tabiatha most popular?
The single biggest year for Tabiatha was 1971, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tabiatha is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tabiatha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tabiatha 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.
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.