Tamas
A masculine name of Hungarian origin meaning "steadfast" or "stalwart".
Name Census estimates that about 93 living Americans carry the first name Tamas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tamas today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tamas births was 2012 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tamas. 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 Tamas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Tamas. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
93
~ 1 in 3,685,531 Americans
Peak year
2012
8 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2013 SSA rank
#13,821
Tracked since 1964
Census
Tamas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 834 people with the first name Tamas, which placed it at #14,190 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
#14,190
National first-name rank
People counted
834
834 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tamas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamas is White at 93.8%. The next largest groups are Black (3.0%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Tamas 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 Tamas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.8% · 782
- Black or African American3.0% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 15
- Two or more races0.6% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Popularity
Tamas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tamas from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 30 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tamas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tamas 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 Tamas 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 Tamas
The name Tamas has its origins in Hungarian and Sanskrit languages. In Hungarian, it is derived from the word "tamas," which means "support" or "steadfast." This name was common among the Magyar people of Hungary during the Middle Ages.
In Sanskrit, the name Tamas is derived from the word "tamas," which means "darkness" or "ignorance." It is one of the three gunas (qualities) in Hindu philosophy, representing inertia, ignorance, and darkness. The name was used in ancient Hindu texts and scriptures, such as the Bhagavad Gita.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Tamas is from the 11th century, when a Hungarian nobleman named Tamas Vata was mentioned in historical records. In the 13th century, Tamas Bakócz was a Hungarian cardinal and statesman who played a significant role in the politics of the Kingdom of Hungary.
In the 16th century, Tamas Nadasdy was a Hungarian nobleman and military leader known for his role in the Ottoman-Hungarian Wars. He is considered one of the greatest Hungarian military commanders of his time.
In the 19th century, Tamas Erdödi was a Hungarian poet and writer who contributed to the development of Hungarian literature. He is best known for his romantic poetry and his translations of works by Shakespeare and other English authors.
Another notable figure with the name Tamas is Tamas Darnyi, a Hungarian swimmer who won multiple Olympic medals in the 1980s and 1990s. He is considered one of the greatest Hungarian swimmers of all time.
Tamas Blummer, born in 1938, is a Hungarian-American mathematician and computer scientist. He is known for his contributions to the field of computer graphics and his work on the mathematical foundations of computer graphics.
People
Tamas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tamas 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
Tamas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tamas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 93 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tamas 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 3,685,531 US residents.
Is Tamas a common name?
We classify Tamas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 96 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tamas most popular?
The single biggest year for Tamas was 2012, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tamas is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tamas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 834 people with the name Tamas, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,190 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 Tamas 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 Tamas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tamas leans strongly male. 827 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 13 female bearers (1.5%). 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 Tamas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamas is White at 93.8%. The next largest groups are Black (3.0%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Tamas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tamas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.8% (782 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 Tamas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tamas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tamas 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 Tamas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tamas 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 Tamas 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 Tamas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.