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Tad

#7,615 in 2025Boys' name

Short form of Thaddeus

Tad has been given to 6,929 babies in the U.S. since 1912. In 2025 it ranked #7,615 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1966, with 265 recorded.

Babies named Tad, 2025

1 in 301,000

Tad over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tad: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Thaddeus

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tad means

Tad is a short form of Thaddeus.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Tad → Thaddeus. The family’s proposed meaning is “heart, breast”, recorded in the naming reference for Thaddeus.

Origin, language, and formation

Tad is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Thaddeus and Thaddaeus.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,929 boys were recorded with the name Tad between 1912 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 265 in 1966; its best national rank was #471 in 1966.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,980 in 2020 to #7,615 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,952 in 2015 to #7,615 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Tad?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 301,000
11 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 155,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,615
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
208,901 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tad sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 208,901 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tad. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tads were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tad was born before 1971 — so the typical Tad is around 54 today.

Median birth year
1971
About 54 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
26.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
6,472
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 26.9% of all recorded uses (1,862).

Is Tad rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+78
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+365
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,663
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.73×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
4.2%
Peak was 1966 (265)
Years since peak
59
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#471
1966

Where Tad is used

Across 1910–2025, Tad was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 12,500 boys, against 1 in 42,445 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

08 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 12,500
  2. 2Washington1 in 14,286
  3. 3Iowa1 in 16,667
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 20,000
  5. 5Oregon1 in 20,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 25,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 25,000
  8. 8Kansas1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Tad has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Tad around the world

Where Tad ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1969–1997
    #543
    in 1997

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Tad

People whose public names include Tad, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Tad by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,615
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 365
Best rank ever
#471
1966
Peak year
1966
265 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,929
Count in 2025
11

Names similar to Tad

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

TadeoTaddTadhgTadenTadashiTadaoTadariusTadanTadeuszTadeiTadeTadeyTadehTadejTadghTadeusTadrianTadynTaddeoTadarriusTadeasTadayoshiTadarianTadarious

Names with a curve like Tad

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Tad, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

KraigRobbyJeffereyChetBrittTimmothyKelleyEdwardoBrienGreggoryRichieBryon

Sibling names for Tad

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Tad

Top names of 1966, Tad's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1966Boys' names starting with T