Taleshia
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a creative spelling variant.
Name Census estimates that about 147 living Americans carry the first name Taleshia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Taleshia today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Taleshia births was 1989 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Taleshia. 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
147
~ 1 in 2,331,662 Americans
Peak year
1989
16 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2001 SSA rank
#13,345
Tracked since 1973
Census
Taleshia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 140 people with the first name Taleshia, which placed it at #47,034 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
#47,034
National first-name rank
People counted
140
140 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
86.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Taleshia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Taleshia is Black at 86.4%. The next largest groups are White (5.7%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Taleshia 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 Taleshia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American86.4% · 121
- White5.7% · 8
- Two or more races3.6% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 2
Popularity
Taleshia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Taleshia from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 73 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Taleshia 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 Taleshia 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 Taleshia
The name Taleshia is derived from the Arabic name Taliah, which means "morning dew" or "fresh plant growth." Its origins can be traced back to the 7th century CE, when the Arabic language and culture were spreading across the Middle East and North Africa.
The earliest known recorded use of the name Taleshia dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in a collection of Arabic poetry from the Islamic Golden Age. During this period, the name was popular among Arab scholars and poets, who often used it as a metaphor for beauty, purity, and renewal.
One of the most famous historical figures to bear the name Taleshia was a 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet from Persia, known as Taleshia al-Qazvini (1212-1292). Her collection of spiritual poetry, known as the "Diwan-e-Taleshia," is still widely read and studied in the Persian-speaking world.
In the 15th century, the name Taleshia gained popularity in the Ottoman Empire, where it was often given to young girls born in the spring or early summer months. One notable example is Taleshia Hatun (1450-1521), a Ottoman princess and patron of the arts, known for her support of calligraphers and architects.
As the Arabic language and culture spread further west, the name Taleshia also found its way to the Iberian Peninsula, where it was adopted by the Moors of Al-Andalus. One of the most prominent figures to bear the name during this period was Taleshia al-Qurtubiah (980-1035), a renowned mathematician and astronomer from Cordoba, whose works on geometry and trigonometry were widely studied in medieval Europe.
In the 19th century, the name Taleshia was introduced to the Americas, where it became popular among African-American communities, possibly due to its similarity to the West African name Talesha. One of the earliest recorded examples of an African-American woman bearing the name was Taleshia Jackson (1837-1911), a former slave who became a successful businesswoman and philanthropist in Virginia.
People
Taleshia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Taleshia 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
Taleshia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Taleshia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 147 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Taleshia 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 2,331,662 US residents.
Is Taleshia a common name?
We classify Taleshia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 157 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Taleshia most popular?
The single biggest year for Taleshia was 1989, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Taleshia is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Taleshia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 140 people with the name Taleshia, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47,034 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 Taleshia 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 Taleshia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Taleshia appears almost entirely female. Of the 140 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Taleshia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Taleshia is Black at 86.4%. The next largest groups are White (5.7%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Taleshia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Taleshia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.4% (121 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 Taleshia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Taleshia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Taleshia 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 Taleshia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Taleshia 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 Taleshia 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 Taleshia?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Taleshia, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.