Tea
A feminine name derived from the word for the aromatic beverage.
Name Census estimates that about 2,438 living Americans carry the first name Tea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tea today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tea births was 1998 (290 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tea. 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
2.4K
~ 1 in 140,588 Americans
Peak year
1998
290 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,534
Tracked since 1976
Popularity
Tea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tea from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,160 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
Tea 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 Tea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Teas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Tea, while Mississippi, Maryland, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tea
The name Tea is believed to have its origins in Southeast Asia, where the tea plant is native. The word "tea" is thought to be derived from the Amoy dialect word "tê," which was used to refer to the plant and its leaves.
In ancient Chinese texts, the name Tea is mentioned as early as the 3rd century BCE, when the scholar Confucius is said to have written about the medicinal and spiritual properties of the tea plant. The name was closely associated with the tea culture that developed in China and later spread to other parts of Asia and the world.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tea was Tea Yin, a Chinese Buddhist monk who lived in the 6th century CE. He is credited with introducing the practice of tea cultivation and consumption to Japan, where it became an integral part of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
In the 17th century, a Chinese woman named Tea Leoni became famous for her role in the Dutch East India Company's trade in tea. She was instrumental in establishing the tea trade between China and Europe, which helped to popularize the beverage in the West.
Another notable figure with the name Tea was Tea Tephi, an ancient Irish princess who, according to legend, brought the Stone of Scone (also known as the Stone of Destiny) from Israel to Ireland in the 6th century BCE. This stone was later used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs.
In more recent history, Tea Leoni, an American actress born in 1966, has popularized the name through her successful career in film and television. She is best known for her roles in movies such as "Deep Impact" and "The Family Man."
Tea Obreht, a Serbian-American author born in 1985, has also brought attention to the name with her critically acclaimed debut novel "The Tiger's Wife," which won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Tea
People
Tea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tea 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
Tea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,438 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tea 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 140,588 US residents.
Is Tea a common name?
We classify Tea as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,483 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tea most popular?
The single biggest year for Tea was 1998, when 290 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tea is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Tea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tea 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.
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.