Tharon
A name of uncertain origin, potentially meaning "king" or "ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 432 living Americans carry the first name Tharon. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Tharon today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tharon births was 1923 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tharon. 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.
Key insights
- • Tharon was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
People living today
432
~ 1 in 793,413 Americans
Peak year
1923
32 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2019 SSA rank
#5,514
Tracked since 1916
Census
Tharon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 495 people with the first name Tharon, which placed it at #20,757 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
#20,757
National first-name rank
People counted
495
495 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tharon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tharon is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.7%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Tharon 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 Tharon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.2% · 318
- Black or African American26.7% · 132
- Two or more races3.8% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Tharon
Tharon is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 650 total registrations, 483 (74.3%) were male and 167 (25.7%) were female.
Tharon as a male name
- Ranked #10,696 in 2019
- 7 male births in 2019
- Peak: 1963 (14 births)
Tharon as a female name
- Ranked #5,514 in 1952
- 6 female births in 1952
- Peak: 1923 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tharon on both sides of the split. Of the 491 people counted with this name, 377 were male (76.8%) and 114 were female (23.2%).
Popularity
Tharon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tharon from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 126 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tharon 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 Tharon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tharons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tharon
The given name Tharon has its roots in the ancient Hebrew language. It is believed to have originated from the word "torah," which means "instruction" or "teaching." The name likely emerged during the biblical era, around the 10th century BCE, among the Israelite tribes in the region now known as the Middle East.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Tharon can be found in the Book of Ezra, a part of the Hebrew Bible. In this text, Tharon is listed as one of the Israelites who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity in the 5th century BCE. This suggests that the name was already in use among the Hebrew people during that time period.
Throughout history, several notable figures have carried the name Tharon. One of the earliest known was Tharon of Agrigentum, a Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 5th century BCE. He is credited with developing the principles of geometrical analysis and is considered a pioneering figure in the field of mathematics.
In the 1st century CE, Tharon of Tyre was a renowned historian and chronicler from the ancient city of Tyre, located in modern-day Lebanon. His works, unfortunately, have been lost to time, but he is referenced by several ancient authors, including Pliny the Elder and Josephus.
During the Middle Ages, Tharon the Scribe was a notable calligrapher and illuminator of manuscripts in the 11th century. He worked in the scriptorium of the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy, producing beautifully ornamented religious texts that are still preserved today.
In the 16th century, Tharon de Réville was a French Protestant theologian and writer who played a significant role in the Reformation movement. Born in 1558, he authored several influential works on theology and was known for his passionate defense of the Protestant faith.
Another notable figure was Tharon Musser, an American lawyer and politician who served as the 26th Governor of New Mexico from 1925 to 1927. Born in 1875, he was instrumental in promoting economic development and infrastructure projects during his tenure as governor.
While the name Tharon has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it has been adopted and used across various societies and time periods, often carrying connotations of wisdom, knowledge, and historical significance.
People
Tharon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tharon 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
Tharon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tharon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 432 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tharon 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 793,413 US residents.
Is Tharon a common name?
We classify Tharon as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 650 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tharon most popular?
The single biggest year for Tharon was 1923, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tharon is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tharon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 495 people with the name Tharon, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,757 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 Tharon 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 Tharon?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tharon on both sides of the split. Of the 491 people counted with this name, 377 were male (76.8%) and 114 were female (23.2%). 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 Tharon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tharon is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.7%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Tharon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tharon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.2% (318 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 Tharon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tharon a male name?
Yes, 74.3% of people registered as Tharon 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 Tharon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tharon 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 Tharon 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 Tharon?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.