Tyla
A feminine given name of English origin meaning "pretty, beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 3,133 living Americans carry the first name Tyla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tyla today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tyla births was 2024 (138 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tyla. 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 Tyla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.1K
~ 1 in 109,401 Americans
Peak year
2024
138 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2001 SSA rank
#1,546
Tracked since 1958
Census
Tyla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,510 people with the first name Tyla, which placed it at #6,405 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
#6,405
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tyla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tyla is Black at 45.3%. The next largest groups are White (37.1%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Tyla 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 Tyla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.3% · 1,138
- White37.1% · 931
- Two or more races7.4% · 185
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 152
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.6% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 39
Gender
Gender distribution for Tyla
Out of the 3,234 babies given the name Tyla since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Tyla as a male name
- Ranked #9,176 in 2001
- 7 male births in 2001
- Peak: 2001 (7 births)
Tyla as a female name
- Ranked #1,546 in 2024
- 138 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (138 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tyla leans strongly female. 2,466 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 48 male bearers (1.9%).
Popularity
Tyla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tyla from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 994 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Tyla remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tyla 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 Tyla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tylas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Tyla, while Utah, Oklahoma, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 44 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tyla
The name Tyla is a feminine given name of uncertain origin, though it is believed to have roots in various cultures and languages. One possible source is the Sanskrit word "tila," which means "sesame seed," suggesting a connection to ancient Indian civilizations.
Another potential origin is the Greek word "tylos," meaning "knot" or "callus." This could hint at a lineage traced back to the classical Greek era, where names often carried symbolic meanings related to physical traits or characteristics.
In some Nordic and Germanic cultures, the name Tyla may have evolved from the Old Norse word "tylr," which referred to a type of cloth or textile. This could indicate a connection to the textile industry or trade routes in northern Europe during the medieval period.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Tyla are scarce, but some historical figures bearing this moniker include Tyla of Thessaly, a Greek philosopher who lived in the 4th century BCE and wrote extensively on the principles of logic and reasoning.
Another notable bearer of the name was Tyla the Scribe, a renowned calligrapher and illuminator of manuscripts in the Byzantine Empire during the 11th century CE. Her intricate and ornate works adorned many religious texts and documents of the time.
In the realm of literature, Tyla was the name of a fictional character in the epic poem "The Lay of the Nibelungs," a German heroic legend dating back to the 13th century. She was portrayed as a brave and loyal warrior princess, reflecting the cultural values of the era.
During the Renaissance period, Tyla Borgia, an Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts, was known for her keen eye for artistic talent and her support of emerging painters and sculptors in the 16th century.
More recently, Tyla Tharp, an American dancer and choreographer born in 1941, has made significant contributions to the world of modern dance, revolutionizing choreographic styles and techniques.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Tyla, each representing a different culture, time period, and area of influence, showcasing the name's diverse and intriguing origins.
People
Tyla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tyla 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
Tyla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tyla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,133 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tyla 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 109,401 US residents.
Is Tyla a common name?
We classify Tyla as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,234 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tyla most popular?
The single biggest year for Tyla was 2024, when 138 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tyla is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tyla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,510 people with the name Tyla, or 0.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,405 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 Tyla 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 Tyla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tyla leans strongly female. 2,466 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 48 male bearers (1.9%). 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 Tyla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tyla is Black at 45.3%. The next largest groups are White (37.1%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Tyla most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tyla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.3% (1,138 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 Tyla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tyla a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Tyla 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 Tyla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tyla 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 Tyla 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 Tyla?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.