Tameika
A feminine name with roots in the Akan culture, meaning "She has her own way".
Name Census estimates that about 1,426 living Americans carry the first name Tameika. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tameika today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tameika births was 1977 (106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tameika. 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
1.4K
~ 1 in 240,361 Americans
Peak year
1977
106 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2003 SSA rank
#15,570
Tracked since 1970
Popularity
Tameika: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tameika 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 719 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
Tameika 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 Tameika during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tameikas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. New York, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Tameika, while Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tameika
The name Tameika is a modern English name derived from the Hebrew name Tamar. It first emerged in the United States in the 20th century as an African American name.
Tamar is a biblical name that appears in the Old Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Genesis, Tamar is the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. The name Tamar means "date palm" in Hebrew, a reference to the date palm tree that was a common sight in ancient Israel.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Tameika dates back to the early 1900s in the United States. It is believed to have been created by African American parents who wanted to give their children names that had a unique and meaningful sound, while still being easy to pronounce and spell in English.
One of the earliest known individuals named Tameika was Tameika Grier, an African American actress born in 1933. She appeared in several films and television shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the 1972 blaxploitation film "Cool Breeze".
Another notable Tameika was Tameika Williams, a professional basketball player who played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 2002 to 2010. She was born in 1979 and played for several teams, including the Minnesota Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks.
In the world of music, Tameika Ray was a singer and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan, who was active in the 1990s and early 2000s. She released several albums and was known for her soulful R&B sound.
Tameika Henning was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. Born in 1981, she specialized in the 100-meter hurdles and won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Finally, Tameika Lovell was a Jamaican sprinter who represented her country in several international competitions. She was born in 1985 and won a gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.
People
Tameika + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tameika 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
Tameika: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tameika?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,426 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tameika 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 240,361 US residents.
Is Tameika a common name?
We classify Tameika as "Rare". It ranks above 92.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,535 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tameika most popular?
The single biggest year for Tameika was 1977, when 106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tameika is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tameika a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tameika 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.