Tijuana
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "by the sea".
Name Census estimates that about 1,169 living Americans carry the first name Tijuana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tijuana today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tijuana births was 1972 (81 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tijuana. 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.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 293,203 Americans
Peak year
1972
81 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2002 SSA rank
#15,264
Tracked since 1951
Census
Tijuana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,079 people with the first name Tijuana, which placed it at #11,742 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
#11,742
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,079 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
88.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tijuana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tijuana is Black at 88.3%. The next largest groups are White (6.2%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Tijuana 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 Tijuana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American88.3% · 953
- White6.2% · 67
- Two or more races3.1% · 33
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Tijuana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tijuana from the 1950s through to the 2000s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 550 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tijuana 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 Tijuana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tijuanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. New York, Illinois, District of Columbia recorded the most babies named Tijuana, while Virginia, South Carolina, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tijuana
The name Tijuana has its origins in the Kumeyaay language, spoken by the indigenous people who inhabited the region around the present-day city of Tijuana, Mexico. The Kumeyaay word "Tiwuana" referred to a scrub oak that grew abundantly in the area. When the Spanish arrived in the region in the 18th century, they adapted the Kumeyaay word to "Tijuana" and used it to name the settlement they established there.
The earliest recorded use of the name Tijuana dates back to 1829, when it was mentioned in a land grant issued by the Mexican government. However, the name was likely in use among the local Kumeyaay people for centuries before that. As the settlement grew into a town and eventually a city, the name Tijuana became more widely known.
While the name Tijuana is primarily associated with the Mexican city, it has also been used as a given name for individuals, though not as commonly as other Spanish names. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tijuana was Tijuana Muñoz, a Mexican artist born in 1892 who was known for her paintings and murals depicting scenes from Mexican history and culture.
Another notable individual with the name Tijuana was Tijuana Brass, born in 1919, an American musician and bandleader who led the popular Tijuana Brass band in the 1960s and 1970s. Their albums, featuring a blend of Latin and jazz styles, were hugely successful and helped popularize the "Tijuana sound" in mainstream American music.
In more recent times, the name Tijuana has been used by a few individuals in the entertainment industry. Tijuana Ricks, born in 1975, is an American actress and model who has appeared in several films and television shows. Tijuana Vicious, born in 1976, is the stage name of an American drag queen and reality television personality.
While not as common as some other Spanish names, Tijuana has a unique cultural and linguistic history that ties it to the indigenous Kumeyaay people and the Spanish colonization of the region. Its use as a given name has been relatively rare but has been carried by a few notable individuals throughout history.
People
Tijuana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tijuana 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
Tijuana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tijuana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,169 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tijuana 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 293,203 US residents.
Is Tijuana a common name?
We classify Tijuana as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,337 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tijuana most popular?
The single biggest year for Tijuana was 1972, when 81 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tijuana is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tijuana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,079 people with the name Tijuana, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,742 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 Tijuana 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 Tijuana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tijuana leans strongly female. 1,061 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 11 male bearers (1.0%). 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 Tijuana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tijuana is Black at 88.3%. The next largest groups are White (6.2%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Tijuana most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tijuana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.3% (953 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 Tijuana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tijuana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tijuana 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 Tijuana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tijuana 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 Tijuana 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 Tijuana?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.