Tamah
An Arabic name meaning darkness or obscurity.
Name Census estimates that about 45 living Americans carry the first name Tamah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tamah today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tamah births was 1959 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tamah. 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 Tamah. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
45
~ 1 in 7,616,763 Americans
Peak year
1959
7 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1978 SSA rank
#9,602
Tracked since 1959
Census
Tamah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 138 people with the first name Tamah, which placed it at #47,373 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
#47,373
National first-name rank
People counted
138
138 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tamah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamah is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Tamah 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 Tamah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.6% · 103
- Black or African American16.7% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 4
- Two or more races2.9% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 2
Popularity
Tamah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tamah from the 1950s through to the 1970s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 24 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tamah 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 Tamah 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 Tamah
The name Tamah has its origins in the ancient Sanskrit language of India, dating back to around the 2nd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "tamas," which means darkness or ignorance. The name is believed to have been primarily used in Hindu communities across the Indian subcontinent.
In Hindu mythology, Tamas is one of the three gunas or fundamental qualities of nature, along with Rajas (passion) and Sattva (purity). Tamas represents the principle of inertia, ignorance, and darkness. It is associated with qualities such as laziness, inactivity, and obscurity. While the name Tamah is rooted in this concept, its meaning and usage may have evolved over time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tamah can be found in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In this epic, Tamah is mentioned as the name of a demon or asura. However, it is unclear whether this was an actual person or a symbolic character representing the concept of darkness or ignorance.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Tamah. In the 8th century CE, Tamah Kavi was a renowned Sanskrit poet and scholar from India. He is known for his works on grammar and linguistics, including his commentary on the Ashtadhyayi, a foundational text on Sanskrit grammar by Panini.
Another famous Tamah was a 12th-century Hindu philosopher and logician from the Mithila region of present-day Bihar, India. He is known for his contributions to the Navya-Nyaya school of Indian logic and epistemology.
In the 17th century, Tamah Das was a prominent Bengali poet and songwriter, known for his devotional compositions dedicated to the Hindu deities Radha and Krishna. His poetic works, collectively known as the "Tamah Sangit," are considered a significant contribution to the Vaishnava literary tradition of Bengal.
Moving to more recent times, Tamah Kashyap was an Indian author and journalist from Uttar Pradesh, born in 1930. He wrote several novels and short stories in Hindi, exploring themes of social and political issues in contemporary India.
While the name Tamah has its roots in the ancient Sanskrit language and Hindu philosophy, its usage has transcended cultural boundaries over time. It has been adopted by individuals from various backgrounds, although its historical and cultural significance remains rooted in the Indian subcontinent.
People
Tamah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tamah 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
Tamah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tamah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 45 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tamah 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 7,616,763 US residents.
Is Tamah a common name?
We classify Tamah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 52.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tamah most popular?
The single biggest year for Tamah was 1959, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tamah is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tamah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 138 people with the name Tamah, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47,373 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 Tamah 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 Tamah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tamah leans strongly female. 127 people counted with this name were female (94.1%), compared with 8 male bearers (5.9%). 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 Tamah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamah is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Tamah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tamah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.6% (103 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 Tamah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tamah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tamah 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 Tamah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tamah 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 Tamah 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 Tamah?
You can see how many people share the name Tamah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.