Talvin
An English masculine name of unknown etymology and uncertain meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 102 living Americans carry the first name Talvin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Talvin today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Talvin births was 1995 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Talvin. 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 Talvin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
102
~ 1 in 3,360,337 Americans
Peak year
1995
9 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2008 SSA rank
#14,355
Tracked since 1961
Census
Talvin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 181 people with the first name Talvin, which placed it at #40,888 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
#40,888
National first-name rank
People counted
181
181 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Talvin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talvin is Black at 70.7%. The next largest groups are White (13.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.1%). 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 Talvin 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 Talvin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.7% · 128
- White13.8% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.1% · 11
- Two or more races4.4% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 2
Popularity
Talvin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Talvin from the 1960s through to the 2000s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 37 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Talvin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Talvin 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 Talvin 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 Talvin
The name Talvin has its origins in the ancient Celtic languages spoken across Western Europe during the Iron Age, roughly between 800 BCE and the Roman conquest of the region around the 1st century BCE. It is believed to have derived from the Proto-Celtic root word *talv-, meaning "brow" or "forehead," and the diminutive suffix -in, indicating a small or endearing form.
The earliest known recorded instance of the name Talvin appears in a collection of inscriptions found in the region of modern-day Brittany, France, dating back to the 3rd century BCE. These inscriptions were written in the Gaulish language, a Continental Celtic tongue closely related to the Brittonic languages spoken in the British Isles.
One of the most notable historical figures to bear the name Talvin was a Gaulish chieftain who led a rebellion against the Roman Empire in the 1st century BCE. While his exact name has been lost to history, he is referred to in Roman historical accounts as "Talvinus," which is believed to be a Latinized form of the original Celtic name.
In the Middle Ages, the name Talvin resurfaced in various regions of Europe, particularly in the British Isles and parts of France. One notable bearer of the name was Talvin of Shrewsbury (c. 1050 – 1115), an Anglo-Norman nobleman and military commander who played a significant role in the Norman conquest of Wales.
Another historical figure with the name Talvin was Talvin de Montfort (c. 1170 – 1240), a French crusader and military leader who participated in the Albigensian Crusade and the Seventh Crusade to the Holy Land.
In the 16th century, a Scottish poet and scholar named Talvin Dalrymple (c. 1520 – 1590) gained recognition for his works exploring Scottish history and culture.
More recently, in the 19th century, Talvin Wilkins (1841 – 1923) was a prominent American architect known for his work on several notable buildings in the city of Philadelphia, including the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
While the name Talvin has fallen out of widespread use in modern times, its origins can be traced back to the ancient Celtic cultures of Western Europe, where it likely carried connotations of strength, resilience, and a connection to the natural world.
People
Talvin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Talvin 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
Talvin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Talvin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 102 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Talvin 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 3,360,337 US residents.
Is Talvin a common name?
We classify Talvin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Talvin most popular?
The single biggest year for Talvin was 1995, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Talvin is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Talvin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 181 people with the name Talvin, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,888 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 Talvin 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 Talvin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Talvin appears almost entirely male. Of the 182 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Talvin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talvin is Black at 70.7%. The next largest groups are White (13.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.1%). 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 Talvin most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Talvin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.7% (128 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 Talvin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Talvin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Talvin 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 Talvin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Talvin 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 Talvin 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 have the name Talvin?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.