Tamla
Feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly Egyptian, meaning "palm tree branch."
Name Census estimates that about 312 living Americans carry the first name Tamla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tamla today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tamla births was 1971 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tamla. 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 Tamla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
312
~ 1 in 1,098,572 Americans
Peak year
1971
48 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1985 SSA rank
#10,548
Tracked since 1958
Census
Tamla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 377 people with the first name Tamla, which placed it at #25,213 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
#25,213
National first-name rank
People counted
377
377 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
59.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tamla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamla is Black at 59.4%. The next largest groups are White (24.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.4%). 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 Tamla 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 Tamla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American59.4% · 224
- White24.4% · 92
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.4% · 43
- Two or more races3.2% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Tamla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tamla from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 192 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tamla 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 Tamla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tamlas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Louisiana, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Tamla, while Texas, Ohio, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tamla
The name Tamla is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language. It is derived from the word "tamar," which means "date palm" or "date fruit." This name was likely first used in regions where Arabic was spoken, such as the Middle East and North Africa.
Tamla is a variation of the more common Arabic name Tamar. The earliest recorded use of the name Tamar can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible, where it was the name of a daughter-in-law of Judah. In the biblical story, Tamar played a significant role in ensuring the continuity of Judah's lineage.
During the medieval period, the name Tamla was relatively uncommon. However, it gained some popularity in certain parts of the Middle East and North Africa. One notable historical figure with this name was Tamla al-Zahra, a 10th-century Tunisian poet and scholar who was renowned for her contributions to Arabic literature.
In the 16th century, Tamla became more widely used in some regions of the Ottoman Empire. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Tamla Hatun, a Turkish noblewoman who lived during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1500s.
Another notable bearer of the name Tamla was Tamla al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi calligrapher and artist who lived in the 18th century. Her exquisite calligraphic works were highly acclaimed and can still be found in various collections around the world.
In more recent history, the name Tamla gained popularity in the United States in the 20th century, particularly among African American communities. This can be attributed, in part, to the success of the Motown record label, which was originally called Tamla Records when it was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in 1959.
People
Tamla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tamla 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
Tamla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tamla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 312 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tamla 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 1,098,572 US residents.
Is Tamla a common name?
We classify Tamla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 358 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tamla most popular?
The single biggest year for Tamla was 1971, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tamla is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tamla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 377 people with the name Tamla, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,213 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 Tamla 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 Tamla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tamla leans strongly female. 349 people counted with this name were female (93.3%), compared with 25 male bearers (6.7%). 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 Tamla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tamla is Black at 59.4%. The next largest groups are White (24.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.4%). 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 Tamla most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tamla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.4% (224 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 Tamla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tamla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tamla 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 Tamla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tamla 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 Tamla 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 Tamla as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Tamla on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.