Tiwanna
Of uncertain origin, possibly a feminine variant of the English name Tiffany.
Name Census estimates that about 232 living Americans carry the first name Tiwanna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tiwanna today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tiwanna births was 1979 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tiwanna. 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
232
~ 1 in 1,477,389 Americans
Peak year
1979
23 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
1994 SSA rank
#15,609
Tracked since 1959
Census
Tiwanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 221 people with the first name Tiwanna, which placed it at #36,071 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
#36,071
National first-name rank
People counted
221
221 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
90.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tiwanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiwanna is Black at 90.5%. The next largest groups are White (5.9%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). 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 Tiwanna 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 Tiwanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American90.5% · 200
- White5.9% · 13
- Two or more races2.3% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 3
Popularity
Tiwanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tiwanna from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 151 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
Tiwanna 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 Tiwanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tiwannas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tiwanna
The name Tiwanna is believed to have originated from the Bantu languages spoken in various parts of Africa, particularly in the regions of Central and Southern Africa. It is thought to be derived from the root word "tiwo," which means "praise" or "glorify" in several Bantu dialects.
In its earliest known usage, the name Tiwanna was likely a combination of the root "tiwo" and a suffix or ending that conveyed a sense of endearment or femininity. This naming tradition was common among many African cultures, where names were often imbued with symbolic meanings and aspirations for the child.
While there are no definitive historical records of the name's appearance in ancient texts or religious scriptures, its linguistic roots suggest that it has been in use among various Bantu-speaking communities for centuries, possibly dating back to the medieval period or earlier.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Tiwanna was Tiwanna Nzinga, a 17th-century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba kingdoms in present-day Angola. Nzinga was a renowned military leader and diplomat who fiercely resisted Portuguese colonization efforts in her territories.
Another notable figure was Tiwanna Lovelace, an African American civil rights activist born in 1920 in Mississippi. Lovelace was a prominent member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and played a crucial role in organizing voter registration drives and desegregation efforts in the 1960s.
In the realm of literature, Tiwanna Browne is a contemporary American author known for her works exploring issues of race, identity, and relationships. Her novel "The Mothers" received critical acclaim and was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2017.
Tiwanna Hazelton, born in 1979, is a former professional basketball player who competed in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for teams like the Detroit Shock and the Minnesota Lynx. She was known for her defensive skills and won a WNBA championship with the Shock in 2006.
Lastly, Tiwanna Kenney is an accomplished artist and sculptor from the United States. Her works, often exploring themes of African and African American identity, have been exhibited in various galleries and museums across the country, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
People
Tiwanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tiwanna 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
Tiwanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tiwanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 232 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tiwanna 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 1,477,389 US residents.
Is Tiwanna a common name?
We classify Tiwanna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 259 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tiwanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Tiwanna was 1979, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tiwanna is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tiwanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 221 people with the name Tiwanna, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,071 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 Tiwanna 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 Tiwanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tiwanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 222 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Tiwanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tiwanna is Black at 90.5%. The next largest groups are White (5.9%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). 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 Tiwanna most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tiwanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.5% (200 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 Tiwanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tiwanna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tiwanna 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 Tiwanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tiwanna 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 Tiwanna 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 Tiwanna?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.