Tanae
Hawaiian name meaning "the central or most sacred part".
Name Census estimates that about 654 living Americans carry the first name Tanae. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tanae today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tanae births was 1990 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tanae. 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 Tanae with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
654
~ 1 in 524,089 Americans
Peak year
1990
31 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2022 SSA rank
#17,492
Tracked since 1976
Census
Tanae in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 560 people with the first name Tanae, which placed it at #19,065 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
#19,065
National first-name rank
People counted
560
560 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tanae
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tanae is Black at 76.6%. The next largest groups are White (14.3%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Tanae 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 Tanae at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.6% · 429
- White14.3% · 80
- Two or more races5.2% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 3
Popularity
Tanae: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tanae from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 230 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tanae 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 Tanae during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tanaes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tanae
The name Tanae is a feminine given name with roots tracing back to ancient Greek culture and language. Derived from the word "Tanais," meaning "immortal," it was initially associated with the goddess of immortality and eternal life in Greek mythology.
During the classical era in Greece, the name Tanae was particularly popular among the elite classes, who often bestowed it upon their daughters as a symbol of longevity and divine protection. Its usage can be found in several ancient Greek texts and inscriptions from that period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Tanae dates back to the 5th century BCE, when a renowned Athenian philosopher and mathematician, Tanae of Miletus, made significant contributions to the fields of geometry and astronomy.
In the 3rd century BCE, Tanae of Cyzicus, a influential Greek poet and playwright, gained recognition for her works that explored themes of love, loss, and the human condition.
During the Roman era, the name Tanae found its way into the annals of history through the figure of Tanae Lepida, a Roman noblewoman and patron of the arts, who lived in the 1st century CE. Her legacy is celebrated for her support of poets and philosophers of that time.
In the 6th century CE, Tanae Amatsia, a renowned Byzantine scholar and theologian, made significant contributions to the study and preservation of ancient Greek texts, ensuring the survival of many important works for future generations.
Another notable figure bearing the name Tanae was Tanae Komnene, a princess of the Byzantine Empire in the 12th century CE. She was known for her erudition and patronage of the arts, and her court was a center of intellectual and cultural activity.
Throughout history, the name Tanae has been a symbol of immortality, longevity, and intellectual pursuits, carried by various influential figures across different cultures and eras.
People
Tanae + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tanae 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
Tanae: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tanae?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 654 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tanae 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 524,089 US residents.
Is Tanae a common name?
We classify Tanae as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 675 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tanae most popular?
The single biggest year for Tanae was 1990, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tanae 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 Tanae in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 560 people with the name Tanae, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,065 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 Tanae 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 Tanae?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tanae leans strongly female. 554 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 9 male bearers (1.6%). 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 Tanae?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tanae is Black at 76.6%. The next largest groups are White (14.3%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Tanae most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tanae in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.6% (429 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 Tanae in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tanae a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tanae 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 Tanae still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tanae 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 Tanae 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 the name Tanae?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Tanae, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.