Tammye
An anglicized variant of the feminine name Tammy, derived from Thomasina.
Name Census estimates that about 547 living Americans carry the first name Tammye. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tammye today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tammye births was 1962 (66 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tammye. 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
547
~ 1 in 626,608 Americans
Peak year
1962
66 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
1980 SSA rank
#8,979
Tracked since 1957
Census
Tammye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 570 people with the first name Tammye, which placed it at #18,805 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
#18,805
National first-name rank
People counted
570
570 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tammye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tammye is White at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Black (31.9%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Tammye 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 Tammye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.0% · 359
- Black or African American31.9% · 182
- Two or more races3.3% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Popularity
Tammye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tammye from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 418 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tammye 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 Tammye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tammyes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Tammye, while Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 44 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tammye
The name Tammye is a modern English variant of the ancient Greek name Thomais. The name Thomais was derived from the Greek word "thauma" which means "wonder" or "marvel." It first appeared in ancient Greek texts dating back to the 5th century BCE.
In the early Christian era, Thomais became a popular name among Greek-speaking Christians, as it was associated with the apostle Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. The name was often given to girls born on the feast day of St. Thomas, which falls on December 21st.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Thomais was a 4th-century Christian martyr from Alexandria, Egypt, who was tortured and executed for her faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Her story is recounted in the ancient Christian work "The Martyrdom of Saints Thauma and Thauma" written in the 5th century.
As the name spread across Europe during the Middle Ages, it underwent various spelling changes and adaptations. In England, the name evolved into the forms Tammy and Tammye, which became increasingly popular in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Notable historical figures named Tammye include Tammye Robbins (1949-2010), an American country music singer and songwriter who charted several hit songs in the 1970s. Tammye Callies (born 1952) is an American actress known for her role in the TV series "The Knick" and the film "Lakeview Terrace."
Tammye Shults (born 1972) is a former United States Navy fighter pilot who gained widespread recognition in 2018 for her skillful emergency landing of a Southwest Airlines flight after an engine failure. Tammye Adams (born 1959) is an American former professional tennis player who won the French Open doubles title in 1981.
Tammye Edwards (born 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the WNBA for several teams, including the Minnesota Lynx and the Atlanta Dream.
People
Tammye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tammye 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
Tammye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tammye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 547 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tammye 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 626,608 US residents.
Is Tammye a common name?
We classify Tammye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 666 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tammye most popular?
The single biggest year for Tammye was 1962, when 66 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tammye is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tammye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 570 people with the name Tammye, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,805 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 Tammye 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 Tammye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tammye appears almost entirely female. Of the 576 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Tammye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tammye is White at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Black (31.9%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Tammye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tammye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.0% (359 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 Tammye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tammye a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tammye 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 Tammye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tammye 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 Tammye 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 Tammye?
You can see how many Americans are named Tammye on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.