Tyee
A Pacific Northwest Native American name meaning "leader" or "chief".
Name Census estimates that about 313 living Americans carry the first name Tyee. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tyee today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tyee births was 2005 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tyee. 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 Tyee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
313
~ 1 in 1,095,062 Americans
Peak year
2005
24 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2023 SSA rank
#7,684
Tracked since 1976
Census
Tyee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 334 people with the first name Tyee, which placed it at #27,416 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
#27,416
National first-name rank
People counted
334
334 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tyee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tyee is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (15.0%). 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 Tyee 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 Tyee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.8% · 123
- Black or African American21.6% · 72
- American Indian and Alaska Native15.0% · 50
- Two or more races15.0% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 7
Popularity
Tyee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tyee from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 173 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tyee 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 Tyee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tyees live
Origin
Meaning and history of Tyee
The name Tyee has its origins in the Chinook Jargon, a trade language that developed among indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in the early 19th century. It is derived from the Nuu-chah-nulth word "ʔiiy̓aqčɪː," which means "leader" or "chief."
The Chinook Jargon was a pidgin language that emerged as a means of communication between indigenous tribes and European traders, explorers, and settlers in the region. The word "Tyee" was adopted into the Jargon from the Nuu-chah-nulth language and came to be used to refer to leaders, chiefs, or people of importance.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Tyee can be found in the journals of Lewis and Clark, the famous American explorers who traveled through the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s. They often referred to the leaders of the indigenous tribes they encountered as "Tyees."
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the name Tyee gained popularity among non-indigenous settlers in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in Washington and Oregon. It was sometimes given as a first name to children, likely as a way to honor the indigenous cultures of the region.
One notable figure with the first name Tyee was Tyee Sampson (1892-1977), a Native American artist and educator from the Yakama Nation. He was known for his vibrant paintings depicting traditional Yakama life and customs.
Another individual with the name was Tyee Yahtin (1891-1977), a well-known Clatsop artist and storyteller who played a significant role in preserving and promoting the culture and traditions of the Clatsop people.
In the world of literature, Tyee Nakata (1909-1994) was a Japanese-American writer and poet who explored themes of identity, discrimination, and cultural assimilation in his works.
Moving to the realm of sports, Tyee Edney (1971-) is a former American professional basketball player who played in the NBA and several international leagues.
Finally, Tyee Williams (1992-) is a contemporary American football player who currently plays as a defensive back in the NFL.
While the name Tyee is not as common today as it once was, it remains a unique and meaningful name with deep roots in the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest.
People
Tyee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tyee 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
Tyee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tyee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 313 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tyee 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 1,095,062 US residents.
Is Tyee a common name?
We classify Tyee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 318 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tyee most popular?
The single biggest year for Tyee was 2005, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tyee is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tyee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 334 people with the name Tyee, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,416 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 Tyee 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 Tyee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tyee leans strongly male. 312 people counted with this name were male (94.3%), compared with 19 female bearers (5.7%). 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 Tyee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tyee is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (15.0%). 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 Tyee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Tyee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.8% (123 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 Tyee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tyee a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tyee 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 Tyee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tyee 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 Tyee 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 the name Tyee?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Tyee, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.