Tirzah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "pleasing" or "favored".
Name Census estimates that about 1,947 living Americans carry the first name Tirzah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tirzah today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tirzah births was 2017 (71 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tirzah. 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 Tirzah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 176,042 Americans
Peak year
2017
71 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,939
Tracked since 1899
Census
Tirzah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,689 people with the first name Tirzah, which placed it at #8,567 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
#8,567
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,689 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tirzah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tirzah is White at 62.1%. The next largest groups are Black (13.0%) and Hispanic (12.6%). 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 Tirzah 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 Tirzah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.1% · 1,049
- Black or African American13.0% · 220
- Hispanic or Latino12.6% · 213
- Two or more races8.6% · 145
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 13
Popularity
Tirzah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tirzah from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 639 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Tirzah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tirzah 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 Tirzah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tirzahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Tirzah, while Ohio, Georgia, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tirzah
The name Tirzah originates from the Hebrew language and can be traced back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "רָצָה" (ratzah), which means "to delight" or "to please". This name has been in use since biblical times and is mentioned in the Old Testament.
In the Book of Numbers, Tirzah is listed as one of the daughters of Zelophehad, a man from the tribe of Manasseh. The story of Zelophehad's daughters, including Tirzah, is significant because they successfully petitioned Moses to allow them to inherit their father's land, setting a precedent for women's property rights in ancient Israelite society.
Tirzah was also the name of an ancient city in the northern kingdom of Israel. According to the Bible, it served as the capital of the kingdom for a brief period during the reign of Jeroboam I and his son Nadab, before the capital was moved to Samaria.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tirzah was Tirzah, the daughter of Zelophehad, who lived circa 1400 BCE. Another notable figure was Tirzah, the wife of Caleb, who was mentioned in the Book of Chronicles (circa 500 BCE).
In more recent history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Tirzah:
1. Tirzah Garwood (1908-1951), an American vaudeville actress and singer.
2. Tirzah Litre (1885-1949), an American educator and social worker.
3. Tirzah Ravilious (1908-1951), an English artist and wood engraver.
4. Tirzah Louttit (1923-2011), a Canadian First Nations artist and writer.
5. Tirzah Joy (born 1984), an English singer-songwriter and record producer.
While the name Tirzah may not be as common today as it once was, it has a rich historical legacy spanning centuries and cultures, with its roots firmly planted in the ancient Hebrew language and biblical texts.
People
Tirzah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tirzah 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
Tirzah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tirzah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,947 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tirzah 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 176,042 US residents.
Is Tirzah a common name?
We classify Tirzah as "Rare". It ranks above 93.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,033 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tirzah most popular?
The single biggest year for Tirzah was 2017, when 71 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tirzah is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tirzah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,689 people with the name Tirzah, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,567 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 Tirzah 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 Tirzah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tirzah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,696 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 Tirzah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tirzah is White at 62.1%. The next largest groups are Black (13.0%) and Hispanic (12.6%). 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 Tirzah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tirzah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.1% (1,049 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 Tirzah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tirzah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tirzah 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 Tirzah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tirzah 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 Tirzah 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 Tirzah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.