Thy
An antiquated English rendition of the pronoun "thine" or "your".
Name Census estimates that about 354 living Americans carry the first name Thy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Thy today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Thy births was 1991 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Thy. 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 Thy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
354
~ 1 in 968,233 Americans
Peak year
1991
18 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2018 SSA rank
#17,913
Tracked since 1979
Census
Thy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,131 people with the first name Thy, which placed it at #7,228 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
#7,228
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,131 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Thy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thy is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and Hispanic (0.7%). 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 Thy 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 Thy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.7% · 2,060
- White1.3% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 15
- Two or more races0.7% · 15
- Black or African American0.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Thy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Thy from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 106 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Thy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Thy 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 Thy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Thys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Thy
The name Thy has its origins in the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia during the Viking Age, around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. It is believed to be derived from the Old Norse word "þýr," which means "divine being" or "god."
The name Thy was primarily used in the Norse mythology and ancient Germanic folklore, where it referred to one of the gods in the Norse pantheon. In the Poetic Edda, an ancient collection of Norse poems, the god Tyr (also spelled Tiw or Tiu) was often referred to as "Thy." He was the god of war, justice, and heroic glory, and was highly revered among the Norse people.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Thy is found in the Icelandic Landnámabók, a medieval manuscript that documented the settlement of Iceland by the Norse people in the 9th and 10th centuries. The book mentions several individuals with the name Thy, suggesting that it was a relatively common name during that time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Thy. One of the most famous was Thy Oddsson (1070–1121), an Icelandic chieftain and lawspeaker who played a significant role in the Sturlung Era, a period of civil strife in Iceland during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Another notable figure was Thy Thorvaldsson (1145–1205), an Icelandic poet and skald who wrote several poems praising Icelandic chieftains and Norwegian kings. His works were preserved in the Poetic Edda and other medieval manuscripts.
In the 13th century, there was Thy Arnason (1225–1290), a Norwegian nobleman and landowner who was involved in the Norwegian civil wars of the time. He was a supporter of King Hákon IV Hákonarson and played a crucial role in the battles against the rebel forces.
Moving into the 14th century, we have Thy Sigurdsson (1310–1375), a Swedish clergyman and Bishop of Skara, who was known for his efforts in promoting education and establishing schools in his diocese.
Finally, in the 15th century, there was Thy Eiriksson (1445–1510), an Icelandic farmer and chieftain who was one of the most powerful landowners in the country during his time. He was also a member of the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, and played a significant role in shaping the island's political landscape.
People
Thy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Thy 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
Thy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Thy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 354 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Thy 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 968,233 US residents.
Is Thy a common name?
We classify Thy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 366 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Thy most popular?
The single biggest year for Thy was 1991, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Thy is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Thy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,131 people with the name Thy, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,228 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 Thy 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 Thy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Thy leans strongly female. 1,776 people counted with this name were female (83.7%), compared with 347 male bearers (16.3%). 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 Thy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Thy is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and Hispanic (0.7%). 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 Thy most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Thy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.7% (2,060 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 Thy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Thy a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Thy 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.
Is Thy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Thy 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 Thy 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 common is the name Thy?
See how many people have the name Thy on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.