Tilden
A masculine name of English origin meaning "productive tilled ground".
Name Census estimates that about 990 living Americans carry the first name Tilden. It is a predominantly male name (93.5% of registrations). The average person named Tilden today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tilden births was 2022 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tilden. 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
990
~ 1 in 346,217 Americans
Peak year
2022
50 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,141
Tracked since 1880
Census
Tilden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 799 people with the first name Tilden, which placed it at #14,674 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
#14,674
National first-name rank
People counted
799
799 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tilden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tilden is White at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.1%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Tilden 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 Tilden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.5% · 587
- Black or African American11.1% · 89
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 34
- Two or more races4.3% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Tilden
Tilden leans heavily male at 93.5% of total registrations, but 90 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tilden as a male name
- Ranked #3,141 in 2024
- 39 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (39 births)
Tilden as a female name
- Ranked #13,306 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tilden leans strongly male. 708 people counted with this name were male (88.3%), compared with 94 female bearers (11.7%).
Popularity
Tilden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tilden from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 259 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tilden 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 Tilden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tildens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tilden
The given name Tilden is believed to have originated from an Old English surname derived from the words "tilia" and "denu," which together mean "a valley where linden trees grow." This places the name's linguistic roots in the Anglo-Saxon period, dating back to the 5th to 11th centuries.
The earliest recorded use of the name Tilden can be traced back to the 12th century in England, where it was initially a surname for someone residing in a linden-filled valley. Over time, the surname transitioned into a masculine given name, albeit a relatively uncommon one.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Tilden was Tilden Edwards, an English Member of Parliament who served in the House of Commons in the late 16th century. He was born in 1539 and played a role in the political landscape of Elizabethan England.
In the 19th century, the name gained some prominence with the American statesman Samuel Jones Tilden, who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the controversial election of 1876. Tilden was born in 1814 and passed away in 1886.
Another notable bearer of the name was Tilden Denny, an American politician and businessman from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He served as the 22nd Governor of Utah from 1886 to 1888 and was born in 1834, passing away in 1914.
In the world of sports, Tilden Vaux Parmenter was a notable American tennis player active in the early 20th century. Born in 1882, he won the U.S. National Championships (now known as the US Open) in 1912 and 1913 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1959.
Another individual with the name Tilden who left a lasting impact was Tilden G. Edwards, an American architect born in 1919. He was known for his pioneering work in sustainable and environmentally conscious architecture, and his designs were heavily influenced by the natural surroundings and local materials.
While the name Tilden has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, these notable individuals have helped to preserve and carry forward its legacy across various fields and disciplines.
People
Tilden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tilden 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
Tilden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tilden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 990 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tilden 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 346,217 US residents.
Is Tilden a common name?
We classify Tilden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,394 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tilden most popular?
The single biggest year for Tilden was 2022, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tilden is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tilden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 799 people with the name Tilden, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,674 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 Tilden 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 Tilden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tilden leans strongly male. 708 people counted with this name were male (88.3%), compared with 94 female bearers (11.7%). 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 Tilden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tilden is White at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.1%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Tilden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tilden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.5% (587 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 Tilden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tilden a male name?
Yes, 93.5% of people registered as Tilden 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 Tilden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tilden 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 Tilden 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 are named Tilden?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.