Taye
A masculine name of Amharic origin meaning "one who speaks truth".
Name Census estimates that about 611 living Americans carry the first name Taye. It is a predominantly male name (92.2% of registrations). The average person named Taye today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Taye births was 2004 (59 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Taye. 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 Taye with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
611
~ 1 in 560,973 Americans
Peak year
2004
59 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,633
Tracked since 1998
Census
Taye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 924 people with the first name Taye, which placed it at #13,165 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
#13,165
National first-name rank
People counted
924
924 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Taye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Taye is Black at 53.2%. The next largest groups are White (17.2%) and Two or More Races (15.6%). 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 Taye 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 Taye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.2% · 492
- White17.2% · 159
- Two or more races15.6% · 144
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 71
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Taye
Taye leans heavily male at 92.2% of total registrations, but 48 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Taye as a male name
- Ranked #9,633 in 2023
- 8 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2004 (53 births)
Taye as a female name
- Ranked #17,272 in 2020
- 5 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1998 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Taye on both sides of the split. Of the 917 people counted with this name, 728 were male (79.4%) and 189 were female (20.6%).
Popularity
Taye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Taye from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 398 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Taye 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 Taye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tayes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Taye, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Taye
The name Taye has its origins in the Amharic language, which is spoken primarily in Ethiopia. Amharic is a Semitic language that has been the official language of Ethiopia since the late 13th century. The name Taye is derived from the Amharic word "taye," which means "my gift" or "my precious one."
One of the earliest known references to the name Taye can be found in the Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century Ethiopian religious text that chronicles the origins of the Solomonic dynasty. The text mentions a character named Taye, who was said to be a loyal servant of the Queen of Sheba.
In the 16th century, a prominent Ethiopian ruler named Taye Gualu played a significant role in the Adal War, which was a conflict between the Ethiopian Empire and the Adal Sultanate. Taye Gualu was known for his military prowess and his unwavering loyalty to the Ethiopian monarchy.
Another notable historical figure with the name Taye was Taye Sellassie Gugsa, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a member of the Ethiopian nobility and served as the governor of several provinces during the reign of Emperor Menelik II.
In the 20th century, Taye Diop Diop was a Senegalese historian and anthropologist who made significant contributions to the study of African history and culture. He was born in 1923 and passed away in 1987.
Taye Selassie Theodoros, born in 1924, was an Ethiopian prince and member of the Solomonic dynasty. He served as a diplomat and was appointed as the first Ethiopian ambassador to the United States in the 1950s.
Overall, the name Taye has a rich history and cultural significance, particularly in the Ethiopian and broader African context. Its meaning of "my gift" or "my precious one" reflects the endearing and affectionate nature of the name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Taye
People
Taye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Taye 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
Taye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Taye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 611 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Taye 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 560,973 US residents.
Is Taye a common name?
We classify Taye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 619 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Taye most popular?
The single biggest year for Taye was 2004, when 59 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Taye is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Taye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 924 people with the name Taye, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,165 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 Taye 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 Taye?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Taye on both sides of the split. Of the 917 people counted with this name, 728 were male (79.4%) and 189 were female (20.6%). 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 Taye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Taye is Black at 53.2%. The next largest groups are White (17.2%) and Two or More Races (15.6%). 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 Taye most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Taye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.2% (492 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 Taye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Taye a male name?
Yes, 92.2% of people registered as Taye 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 Taye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Taye 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 Taye 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 Taye?
Want to know how many people have the name Taye? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.