Topanga
A feminine name derived from the Native American Tongva tribe meaning "where the mountain meets the sea".
Name Census estimates that about 760 living Americans carry the first name Topanga. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Topanga today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Topanga births was 1998 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Topanga. 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
760
~ 1 in 450,993 Americans
Peak year
1998
48 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,271
Tracked since 1994
Census
Topanga in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 522 people with the first name Topanga, which placed it at #19,970 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
#19,970
National first-name rank
People counted
522
522 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Topanga
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Topanga is White at 65.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.4%) and Two or More Races (10.3%). 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 Topanga 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 Topanga at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.5% · 342
- Hispanic or Latino14.4% · 75
- Two or more races10.3% · 54
- Black or African American6.9% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 7
Popularity
Topanga: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Topanga from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 230 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Topanga remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Topanga 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 Topanga during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Topangas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Topanga, while New York, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Topanga
The given name Topanga is believed to have originated from the Native American Tongva tribe, who inhabited the Los Angeles basin and surrounding areas in what is now Southern California. The name is derived from the Tongva word "Topanga-nga", which means "where the mountain meets the sea".
Topanga is also the name of a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, located in Los Angeles County, California. The Topanga Canyon was an important area for the Tongva people, and the name of the canyon likely predates the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the region.
There are no known historical references to the name Topanga in ancient texts or religious scriptures, as it is a relatively modern name that gained popularity in the 20th century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Topanga was Princess Topanga, a member of the Tongva tribe who lived in the late 18th century. She was known for her leadership and advocacy for her people's rights during the Spanish mission period in California.
Another notable person with the name Topanga was Topanga Skye, an American actress and model who was born in 1985. She is best known for her roles in the television series "Boy Meets World" and its sequel series "Girl Meets World".
In the early 20th century, there was a Topanga Madeleine, a French-American artist and activist who was born in 1902 and was known for her vibrant paintings depicting the landscapes of Southern California and her work in promoting environmental conservation.
Topanga Callaway, born in 1968, was an American musician and songwriter who gained popularity in the folk and indie music scenes of the 1990s and 2000s.
Lastly, Topanga Ramírez, a Mexican-American writer and academic, was born in 1975 and is known for her contributions to Chicana literature and her work in exploring issues of identity and cultural heritage.
People
Topanga + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Topanga 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
Topanga: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Topanga?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 760 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Topanga 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 450,993 US residents.
Is Topanga a common name?
We classify Topanga as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 770 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Topanga most popular?
The single biggest year for Topanga was 1998, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Topanga is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Topanga in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 522 people with the name Topanga, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,970 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 Topanga 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 Topanga?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Topanga appears almost entirely female. Of the 514 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 Topanga?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Topanga is White at 65.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.4%) and Two or More Races (10.3%). 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 Topanga most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Topanga in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.5% (342 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 Topanga in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Topanga a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Topanga 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 Topanga still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Topanga 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 Topanga 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 Topanga?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.