Tully
A name with Irish roots, possibly derived from a Gaelic phrase meaning "peaceful hill".
Name Census estimates that about 949 living Americans carry the first name Tully. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Tully today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tully births was 2023 (49 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tully. 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 Tully with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
949
~ 1 in 361,174 Americans
Peak year
2023
49 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,941
Tracked since 1900
Census
Tully in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 846 people with the first name Tully, which placed it at #14,041 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
#14,041
National first-name rank
People counted
846
846 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tully
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tully is White at 82.2%. The next largest groups are American Indian/Alaska Native (5.7%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Tully 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 Tully at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.2% · 695
- American Indian and Alaska Native5.7% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 32
- Black or African American3.5% · 30
- Two or more races3.5% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Tully
Tully leans heavily male at 85.3% of total registrations, but 178 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Tully as a male name
- Ranked #10,786 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (24 births)
Tully as a female name
- Ranked #3,941 in 2024
- 38 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tully leans strongly male. 685 people counted with this name were male (81.5%), compared with 156 female bearers (18.5%).
Popularity
Tully: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tully from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 188 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
Tully 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 Tully during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tullys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tully
The name Tully is an English surname that can also be used as a given name. It has its origins in the ancient Latin name Tullius, which was derived from the Latin word "tullus" meaning "a water spring" or "a small hill". The earliest known reference to the name Tully can be found in ancient Roman texts, where it was used as a family name for several notable individuals.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Tully was Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), a renowned Roman statesman, philosopher, and orator. Cicero's writings and speeches have had a profound influence on Western literature and political thought throughout the centuries.
Another notable figure with the name Tully was Servius Tullius (578 BC - 535 BC), the sixth king of Rome. He is credited with introducing several important reforms during his reign, including the establishment of the Roman census and the reorganization of the Roman army.
In the Middle Ages, the name Tully was also associated with the English philosopher and statesman Thomas Tully (1474 - 1536), who served as the Secretary of State under King Henry VIII. Tully was a prominent figure in the English Reformation and played a significant role in the dissolution of monasteries in England.
During the Renaissance period, the Italian humanist and philosopher Giacomo Tully (1369 - 1437) was known for his contributions to the revival of classical learning and his translations of ancient Greek texts into Latin.
In more recent history, Tully Shawn (1911 - 1992) was an American actor and playwright, best known for his work in the theatre and his collaborations with his brother-in-law, the renowned playwright Eugene O'Neill.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Tully. While the name may have originated as a Roman surname, it has been adopted as a given name in various cultures and continues to be used to this day.
People
Tully + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tully 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
Tully: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tully?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 949 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tully 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 361,174 US residents.
Is Tully a common name?
We classify Tully as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,209 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tully most popular?
The single biggest year for Tully was 2023, when 49 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tully is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tully in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 846 people with the name Tully, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,041 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 Tully 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 Tully?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tully leans strongly male. 685 people counted with this name were male (81.5%), compared with 156 female bearers (18.5%). 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 Tully?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tully is White at 82.2%. The next largest groups are American Indian/Alaska Native (5.7%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Tully most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tully in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.2% (695 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 Tully in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tully a male name?
Yes, 85.3% of people registered as Tully 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 Tully still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tully 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 Tully 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 have Tully as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.