Tiera
A feminine name derived from the word "tierra" meaning "earth".
Name Census estimates that about 3,920 living Americans carry the first name Tiera. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tiera today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tiera births was 1993 (281 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tiera. 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 Tiera with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.9K
~ 1 in 87,437 Americans
Peak year
1993
281 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
1989 SSA rank
#7,822
Tracked since 1967
Census
Tiera in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,289 people with the first name Tiera, which placed it at #5,280 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
#5,280
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,289 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
72.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tiera
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiera is Black at 72.7%. The next largest groups are White (14.9%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Tiera 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 Tiera at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American72.7% · 2,391
- White14.9% · 491
- Two or more races6.4% · 212
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 146
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 22
Gender
Gender distribution for Tiera
Out of the 4,076 babies given the name Tiera since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Tiera as a male name
- Ranked #7,822 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (6 births)
Tiera as a female name
- Ranked #17,451 in 2021
- 5 female births in 2021
- Peak: 1993 (281 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiera appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,292 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Tiera: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tiera from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 2,036 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tiera 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 Tiera during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tieras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. Illinois, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Tiera, while Colorado, Arkansas, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 99 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tiera
The name Tiera is derived from the Spanish word "tierra," which means "earth" or "land." It is believed to have its origins in the Latin word "terra," which also means "earth." The name first emerged in the 16th century during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In the early days, the name Tiera was often given to children born in the New World, as a way to symbolize their connection to the land they were born on. It was also used as a feminine form of the name Tierro, which was a masculine name used during that time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tiera can be found in historical records from the Spanish colonies in Mexico and South America. In 1587, a woman named Tiera Hernandez was born in the city of Veracruz, Mexico. She was the daughter of a Spanish conquistador and a Nahua woman.
Another notable figure with the name Tiera was Tiera de la Vega, a Spanish-Peruvian poet and playwright who lived in the 17th century. She was born in Lima, Peru, in 1608 and is considered one of the first notable female writers in the Spanish colonies.
In the 18th century, a woman named Tiera Ortiz played a significant role in the Mexican War of Independence. She was a supporter of the revolutionary leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and is said to have provided shelter and assistance to the rebel forces.
In the 19th century, Tiera Gonzalez was a Cuban-American writer and activist who fought for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. She was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1835 and later moved to New York City, where she became involved in the women's suffrage movement.
Another notable figure with the name Tiera was Tiera Arellano, an Argentine artist and sculptor who lived in the early 20th century. She was born in Buenos Aires in 1892 and is known for her modernist sculptures, many of which are displayed in museums and public spaces throughout Argentina.
People
Tiera + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tiera 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
Tiera: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tiera?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,920 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tiera 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 87,437 US residents.
Is Tiera a common name?
We classify Tiera as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,076 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tiera most popular?
The single biggest year for Tiera was 1993, when 281 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tiera is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tiera in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,289 people with the name Tiera, or 1.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,280 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 Tiera 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 Tiera?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiera appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,292 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Tiera?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiera is Black at 72.7%. The next largest groups are White (14.9%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Tiera most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tiera in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.7% (2,391 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 Tiera in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tiera a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Tiera 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 Tiera still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tiera 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 Tiera 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 Americans are named Tiera?
See how many Americans are named Tiera on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.