Tiernan
An Irish masculine name derived from "tir na noibh" meaning "lord of the territory".
Name Census estimates that about 1,627 living Americans carry the first name Tiernan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Tiernan today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tiernan births was 2009 (95 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tiernan. 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 Tiernan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 210,666 Americans
Peak year
2009
95 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,166
Tracked since 1985
Census
Tiernan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,521 people with the first name Tiernan, which placed it at #9,233 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
#9,233
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,521 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tiernan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiernan is White at 82.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.3%) and Hispanic (5.8%). 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 Tiernan 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 Tiernan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.0% · 1,247
- Two or more races8.3% · 126
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 88
- Black or African American2.2% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Tiernan
Tiernan leans heavily male at 88.2% of total registrations, but 195 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tiernan as a male name
- Ranked #4,166 in 2024
- 26 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (86 births)
Tiernan as a female name
- Ranked #17,917 in 2018
- 5 female births in 2018
- Peak: 2002 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiernan leans strongly male. 1,283 people counted with this name were male (84.4%), compared with 237 female bearers (15.6%).
Popularity
Tiernan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tiernan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 779 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
Tiernan 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 Tiernan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tiernans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Tiernan, while Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tiernan
The name Tiernan is an Irish given name of Gaelic origin, derived from the Irish word "tíreannach," which means "lord" or "landowner." The name dates back to the early medieval period in Ireland, around the 5th to 8th centuries CE.
Tiernan was a popular name among the Irish nobility and ruling classes during this time. It was often given to the sons of chieftains and kings, reflecting their status as lords of the land. The name's roots can be traced back to the Old Irish language, which was spoken in Ireland before the arrival of Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tiernan is found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In this text, a person named Tiernan Ua Ruairc is mentioned as the King of Breifne, a medieval kingdom in what is now County Leitrim, Ireland, in the late 12th century.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals bore the name Tiernan. One of the most famous was Tiernan O'Rourke (c. 1625-1718), an Irish poet and harpist who was renowned for his compositions in the Gaelic tradition. Another notable Tiernan was Tiernan O'Donnell (c. 1570-1649), a Irish chieftain and military leader who fought against the English during the Irish Confederate Wars.
In the 19th century, Tiernan was the given name of Tiernan O'Farrelly (1826-1892), an Irish-American businessman and philanthropist who founded the O'Farrelly School for Boys in New York City. Additionally, Tiernan MacBride (1856-1923) was an Irish barrister and Home Rule politician who served as Lord Mayor of Dublin.
Tiernan O'Rourke (1876-1957) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician and member of the First Dáil Éireann, the revolutionary parliament of the Irish Republic established in 1919. He was a prominent figure in the Irish struggle for independence from British rule.
While the name Tiernan has its roots in ancient Irish history, it continues to be used as a given name in modern times, particularly in Ireland and among Irish diaspora communities around the world.
People
Tiernan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tiernan 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
Tiernan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tiernan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,627 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tiernan 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 210,666 US residents.
Is Tiernan a common name?
We classify Tiernan as "Rare". It ranks above 92.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,647 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tiernan most popular?
The single biggest year for Tiernan was 2009, when 95 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tiernan is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tiernan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,521 people with the name Tiernan, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,233 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 Tiernan 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 Tiernan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiernan leans strongly male. 1,283 people counted with this name were male (84.4%), compared with 237 female bearers (15.6%). 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 Tiernan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiernan is White at 82.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.3%) and Hispanic (5.8%). 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 Tiernan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tiernan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.0% (1,247 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 Tiernan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tiernan a male name?
Yes, 88.2% of people registered as Tiernan 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 Tiernan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tiernan 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 Tiernan 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 Tiernan?
Want to know how many people share the name Tiernan? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.