Tank
A nickname suggesting steadiness, fortitude, or solidity.
Name Census estimates that about 157 living Americans carry the first name Tank. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tank today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tank births was 2010 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tank. 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
157
~ 1 in 2,183,149 Americans
Peak year
2010
14 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,960
Tracked since 1916
Census
Tank in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 350 people with the first name Tank, which placed it at #26,543 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
#26,543
National first-name rank
People counted
350
350 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tank
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tank is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.0%). 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 Tank 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 Tank at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.3% · 155
- Black or African American29.7% · 104
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.0% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 26
- Two or more races7.4% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.1% · 11
Popularity
Tank: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tank from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 91 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Tank remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tank 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 Tank 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 Tank
The name Tank is a relatively modern moniker that does not have a clear linguistic or cultural origin. While its usage as a given name is fairly recent, the word "tank" itself has a longer history, emerging in the late 16th century as a term for a large artificial water container or cistern.
The earliest known instance of Tank being used as a personal name dates back to the late 19th century. One of the first recorded individuals with this name was Tank Younger, an American outlaw and member of the notorious Younger gang, who was born in 1844 and died in 1916.
Another notable figure with the name Tank was Tank Jones, an American blues musician and songwriter who was active in the early 20th century. Born in 1890 in Tennessee, he was known for songs such as "Blue Tin Rover" and "Fishin' Blues."
In the world of sports, one of the most famous individuals named Tank was Tank Harder, an American football player who played as a fullback for the Chicago Bears in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in 1909 and passed away in 1975.
Moving into the realm of literature, Tank Rizzo was an American poet and writer who gained recognition for his work in the Beat Generation movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in 1923 and died in 1998.
Lastly, Tank Sinatra was an American actor and musician, best known for his roles in several popular films of the 1970s and 1980s, including "The Godfather" and "Serpico." He was born in 1935 and is still alive today at the age of 88.
While the name Tank may have initially been viewed as unconventional or even humorous, its usage has become more widespread in recent decades, perhaps influenced by the popularity of some of the individuals mentioned above or simply as a reflection of the growing trend towards unique and distinctive given names.
People
Tank + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tank 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
Tank: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tank?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 157 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tank 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 2,183,149 US residents.
Is Tank a common name?
We classify Tank as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 163 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tank most popular?
The single biggest year for Tank was 2010, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tank is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tank in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 350 people with the name Tank, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,543 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 Tank 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 Tank?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tank leans strongly male. 332 people counted with this name were male (94.3%), compared with 20 female bearers (5.7%). 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 Tank?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tank is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.0%). 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 Tank most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tank in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (155 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 Tank in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tank a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tank 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 Tank still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tank 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 Tank 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 share the name Tank?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.