Tyan
A masculine name of Persian origin meaning "from the heavens".
Name Census estimates that about 279 living Americans carry the first name Tyan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Tyan today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tyan births was 1982 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tyan. 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 Tyan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
279
~ 1 in 1,228,510 Americans
Peak year
1982
15 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2020 SSA rank
#11,275
Tracked since 1971
Census
Tyan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 359 people with the first name Tyan, which placed it at #26,116 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
#26,116
National first-name rank
People counted
359
359 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tyan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tyan is White at 47.9%. The next largest groups are Black (28.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.5%). 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 Tyan 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 Tyan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.9% · 172
- Black or African American28.4% · 102
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.5% · 27
- Two or more races7.5% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.3% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Tyan
Tyan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 290 total registrations, 222 (76.6%) were male and 68 (23.4%) were female.
Tyan as a male name
- Ranked #11,901 in 2020
- 6 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1983 (11 births)
Tyan as a female name
- Ranked #11,275 in 2003
- 9 female births in 2003
- Peak: 2003 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tyan on both sides of the split. Of the 358 people counted with this name, 206 were male (57.5%) and 152 were female (42.5%).
Popularity
Tyan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tyan from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 88 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tyan 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 Tyan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tyans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tyan
The given name Tyan has its origins in the ancient Aramaic language, spoken in the Middle East during the 8th century BCE. It is derived from the root word "tyn," which means "to establish" or "to fortify." The name was popular among the Aramaic people, who lived in regions like modern-day Syria, Iraq, and parts of Turkey.
One of the earliest known references to the name Tyan can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish texts discovered in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea. These scrolls, dated between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, mention a person named Tyan ben Yehudah, who is believed to have been a scribe or a scholar.
In the 2nd century CE, the name Tyan appeared in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, who documented the Jewish-Roman wars. Josephus mentions a Jewish rebel leader named Tyan ben Shalom, who fought against the Roman forces in Judea.
During the Byzantine era, in the 6th century CE, a prominent Christian theologian and philosopher named Tyan of Alexandria made significant contributions to the study of Neoplatonism. He is regarded as one of the last great pagan philosophers of the ancient world.
In the 9th century CE, an Arab mathematician and astronomer named Tyan al-Battani, also known as Albatenius, made important discoveries in the field of trigonometry and developed improved methods for calculating the movements of the planets and stars.
Another noteworthy figure bearing the name Tyan was a Persian poet and mystic from the 12th century CE, Tyan al-Din Rumi. He is renowned for his spiritual poetry and his influential work, the Masnavi, which is considered one of the greatest works of Persian literature.
While the name Tyan may not be as common today as it once was, it has a rich historical background and has been borne by several influential figures across various fields throughout the centuries.
People
Tyan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tyan 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
Tyan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tyan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 279 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tyan 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 1,228,510 US residents.
Is Tyan a common name?
We classify Tyan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 290 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tyan most popular?
The single biggest year for Tyan was 1982, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tyan 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 Tyan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 359 people with the name Tyan, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,116 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 Tyan 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 Tyan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tyan on both sides of the split. Of the 358 people counted with this name, 206 were male (57.5%) and 152 were female (42.5%). 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 Tyan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tyan is White at 47.9%. The next largest groups are Black (28.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.5%). 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 Tyan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tyan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.9% (172 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 Tyan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tyan a male name?
Yes, 76.6% of people registered as Tyan 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 Tyan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tyan 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 Tyan 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 common is the name Tyan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.