Name Awesome

Tan

Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Tan has been given to 597 babies in the U.S. since 1976. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1985, with 29 recorded.

Babies named Tan, 2019

1 in 434,000

Tan over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tan: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tan means

Tan is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Tan is used in Turkish.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 586 boys were recorded with the name Tan between 1976 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 29 in 1985; its best national rank was #2,009 in 1985.

In the United States, 11 girls were recorded with the name Tan between 1979 and 1980. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1980; its best national rank was #10,241 in 1980.

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 Tan?

Tan had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019
1 in 434,000
8 of 3,472,229 births
Among boys only
1 in 224,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2019
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
300,847 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tan 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 2019 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 300,847 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tan was born before 1992 — so the typical Tan is around 33 today.

Median birth year
1992
About 33 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
34.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
41.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
586
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 34.5% of all recorded uses (202).

Is Tan 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1985 (29)
Years since peak
40
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,009
1985

Where Tan is used

Across 1910–2025, Tan was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 319,253 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Louisiana1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

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. Tan has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Tan around the world

Where Tan 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.

  • England & Wales
    2009–2010
    #4,678
    in 2010
  • France
    1979–2016
    #6,735
    in 2016
  • Canada
    1991–2004
    #2,269
    in 2004
  • South Australia
    1957–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Tan by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,009
1985
Peak year
1985
29 that year
First recorded
1976
Last recorded
2019
All-time count
586
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#10,241
1980
Peak year
1980
6 that year
First recorded
1979
Last recorded
1980
All-time count
11
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Tan

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

TanayTankTanishTanushEtanTanerTanisTandyEytanTanvirTanyaMatanTytanTanoTannenTanmayChetanNatanFintanIktanTannorDastanZoltanAltan

Sibling names for Tan

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 Tan

Top names of 1985, Tan's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1985Boys' names starting with T