Till
An Old German masculine name meaning "mighty battle" or "brave champion".
Name Census estimates that about 35 living Americans carry the first name Till. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Till today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Till births was 2011 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Till. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Till. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
35
~ 1 in 9,792,981 Americans
Peak year
2011
8 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,998
Tracked since 1915
Census
Till in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 228 people with the first name Till, which placed it at #35,335 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
#35,335
National first-name rank
People counted
228
228 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Till
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Till is White at 79.8%. The next largest groups are Black (8.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Till 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 Till at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.8% · 182
- Black or African American8.8% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 9
- Two or more races3.9% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 8
Popularity
Till: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Till from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 25 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Till remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Till 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 Till during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Till
The name Till has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically from the Old High German name Dilli or Tilli, which is thought to be a diminutive form of names starting with the element "diet" or "thiad," meaning "people" or "nation." This suggests that the name originally carried a sense of belonging to a particular tribe or community.
In the Middle Ages, the name was prevalent in various Germanic regions, including Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of Scandinavia. It was often spelled as Tilo, Tile, or Thilo, reflecting regional variations in pronunciation and orthography.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Annales Regni Francorum, a historical chronicle from the late 8th century, which mentions a Frankish nobleman named Tillo who served under Charlemagne.
The name gained further prominence through several notable historical figures. One of the most famous was Till Eulenspiegel, a legendary figure from 14th-century German folklore who was known for his mischievous pranks and satirical tales. His adventures were widely popularized in a chapbook published in the early 16th century, solidifying his place in German cultural heritage.
In the realm of literature, the name was borne by Till Duckstein, a character in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," published in the early 19th century. This further contributed to the name's recognition in the German-speaking world.
Another prominent figure was Till Gottfried Tresckow, a German army officer who played a pivotal role in the German resistance movement against Adolf Hitler during World War II. He was involved in the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, and was subsequently executed by the Nazi regime.
In the arts, the name was famously associated with Till Lindemann, the lead singer of the influential German industrial metal band Rammstein, born in 1963. His distinctive vocals and stage presence have made him an iconic figure in the world of heavy metal music.
These are just a few notable examples of individuals who have borne the name Till throughout history, each contributing to the name's rich cultural and historical significance in various fields and contexts.
People
Till + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Till 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
Till: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Till?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 35 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Till 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 9,792,981 US residents.
Is Till a common name?
We classify Till as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 50 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Till most popular?
The single biggest year for Till was 2011, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Till is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Till in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 228 people with the name Till, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,335 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 Till 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 Till?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Till leans strongly male. 197 people counted with this name were male (87.6%), compared with 28 female bearers (12.4%). 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 Till?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Till is White at 79.8%. The next largest groups are Black (8.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Till most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Till in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.8% (182 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 Till in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Till a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Till 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 Till still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Till 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 Till 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 called Till?
You can see how many people share the name Till on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.