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Taneka

Girls' name

Variant of Tanika

Taneka has been given to 1,519 babies in the U.S. since 1970. 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 1982, with 106 recorded.

Babies named Taneka, 2012

1 in 732,000

Taneka over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Taneka: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Tanika

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Taneka means

Taneka is a variant of Tanika.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Taneka is used in African American (Modern).

Another recorded pronunciation is /tə.ˈni.kə/ for Taneka.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Tanika.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,519 girls were recorded with the name Taneka between 1970 and 2012. Its highest annual count was 106 in 1982; its best national rank was #1,242 in 1982.

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.

How common is Taneka?

Taneka had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2012, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2012
1 in 732,000
5 of 3,657,590 births
Among girls only
1 in 352,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2012
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
507,051 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Taneka sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2012 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 507,051 children born in 2012 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Taneka. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tanekas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Taneka was born before 1982 — so the typical Taneka is around 43 today.

Median birth year
1982
About 43 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
42.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
26.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,519
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 42.1% of all recorded uses (639).

Is Taneka 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 1982 (106)
Years since peak
43
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,242
1982

Spellings of Taneka

Taneka is not the most common spelling — Tanya is, with 37.4% against Taneka's 0.49%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Taneka is used

Across 1910–2025, Taneka was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 210,747 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 100,000
  2. 2Florida1 in 100,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 100,000
  4. 4Illinois1 in 100,000
  5. 5Louisiana1 in 100,000
  6. 6Maryland1 in 100,000
  7. 7North Carolina1 in 100,000
  8. 8South Carolina1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Taneka has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Taneka around the world

Where Taneka 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
    1997–1997
    #3,174
    in 1997
  • South Australia
    1994–2006
    #782
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Taneka by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,242
1982
Peak year
1982
106 that year
First recorded
1970
Last recorded
2012
All-time count
1,519
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Taneka

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

TaneekaTanayaTannerTaniekaTanasiaTanviTaniyaTanylaTandraTangieTaniahTaniyahRebekaEurekaAnnekaTaniTansyTanitaTandyTanyiaTanyekaTanikaTanisTanja

Sibling names for Taneka

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 Taneka

Top names of 1982, Taneka's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1982Girls' names starting with T