Thaddaeus
An Aramaic name meaning "gift of God" or "the praise of God".
Name Census estimates that about 999 living Americans carry the first name Thaddaeus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Thaddaeus today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thaddaeus births was 2005 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thaddaeus. 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 Thaddaeus with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
999
~ 1 in 343,097 Americans
Peak year
2005
29 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,846
Tracked since 1924
Census
Thaddaeus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 825 people with the first name Thaddaeus, which placed it at #14,309 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
#14,309
National first-name rank
People counted
825
825 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Thaddaeus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thaddaeus is White at 60.1%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Thaddaeus 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 Thaddaeus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.1% · 496
- Black or African American21.6% · 178
- Two or more races8.5% · 70
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 58
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 7
Popularity
Thaddaeus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Thaddaeus from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 225 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Thaddaeus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Thaddaeus 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 Thaddaeus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Thaddaeus' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Thaddaeus
The name Thaddaeus has its origins in the Aramaic language, spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. It is derived from the Aramaic word "thadday", which means "breast" or "courageous heart". This name was later adopted into the Greek language as "Thaddaios".
Thaddaeus was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. He is also known as Jude, and is sometimes referred to as Jude Thaddaeus or Judas Thaddaeus. The name Thaddaeus appears in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, where he is listed among the apostles.
In the early centuries of Christianity, the name Thaddaeus was associated with the spread of the Christian faith. According to tradition, Thaddaeus was one of the seventy-two disciples sent out by Jesus to preach the gospel. He is believed to have evangelized in Mesopotamia and Syria.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Thaddaeus was Thaddaeus of Edessa, a Syrian Christian writer who lived in the 5th century AD. He is known for his work "The History of the Armenians", which chronicles the early history of Armenia and the spread of Christianity in the region.
Another notable figure with the name Thaddaeus was Thaddaeus of Viterbo, an Italian Catholic friar who lived in the 13th century. He was a renowned preacher and theologian, and is recognized as a Blessed in the Catholic Church.
In the 16th century, the name Thaddaeus was borne by Thaddaeus Hagecius, a Bohemian astronomer and mathematician who made significant contributions to the study of comets and the reform of the calendar.
In the 17th century, Thaddaeus Kozlowski was a Polish Jesuit missionary who traveled to China and became an influential figure in the Chinese imperial court, serving as an advisor on astronomy and mathematics.
Throughout history, the name Thaddaeus has been associated with religious figures, scholars, and missionaries. Its origins in the Aramaic language and its connection to the apostles of Jesus Christ have contributed to its enduring significance in various cultures and religious traditions.
People
Thaddaeus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thaddaeus 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
Thaddaeus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thaddaeus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 999 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thaddaeus 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 343,097 US residents.
Is Thaddaeus a common name?
We classify Thaddaeus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,035 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thaddaeus most popular?
The single biggest year for Thaddaeus was 2005, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thaddaeus is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Thaddaeus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 825 people with the name Thaddaeus, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,309 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 Thaddaeus 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 Thaddaeus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thaddaeus appears almost entirely male. Of the 823 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Thaddaeus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thaddaeus is White at 60.1%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Thaddaeus most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Thaddaeus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.1% (496 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 Thaddaeus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Thaddaeus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Thaddaeus 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 Thaddaeus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Thaddaeus 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 Thaddaeus 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 Thaddaeus?
See how many people have the name Thaddaeus on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.