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Tawana

Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Tawana has been given to 6,545 babies in the U.S. since 1934. 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 1974, with 365 recorded.

Babies named Tawana, 2011

1 in 732,000

Tawana over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tawana: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tawana means

Tawana is a given name.

The naming story behind Tawana

Wikidata records Tawana as a given name. The entity identifier is Q98612757, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,545 girls were recorded with the name Tawana between 1934 and 2011. Its highest annual count was 365 in 1974; its best national rank was #485 in 1974.

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 Tawana?

Tawana had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2011, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2011
1 in 732,000
5 of 3,657,935 births
Among girls only
1 in 352,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2011
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
507,099 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tawana 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 2011 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 507,099 children born in 2011 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tawana. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tawanas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tawana was born before 1974 — so the typical Tawana is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
47.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
6,446
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 47.5% of all recorded uses (3,107).

Is Tawana 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 1974 (365)
Years since peak
51
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#485
1974

Spellings of Tawana

Tawana is not the most common spelling — Tamara is, with 30.2% against Tawana's 1.5%.

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 Tawana is used

Across 1910–2025, Tawana was most concentrated in District of Columbia — about 1 in 2,703 girls, against 1 in 26,960 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

037 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1District of Columbia1 in 2,703
  2. 2Alabama1 in 14,286
  3. 3Georgia1 in 14,286
  4. 4New York1 in 14,286
  5. 5Florida1 in 16,667
  6. 6Mississippi1 in 16,667
  7. 7New Jersey1 in 16,667
  8. 8Illinois1 in 20,000

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

Tawana around the world

Where Tawana 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
    1996–2023
    #5,688
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1986–1986
    #667
    in 1986

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.

Tawana 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
#485
1974
Peak year
1974
365 that year
First recorded
1934
Last recorded
2011
All-time count
6,545
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Tawana

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

BryanaJohanaMilanaAryanaIleanaSavanaTawnyaAvianaAlianaAitanaAiyanaDelanaQuianaOrianaKeyanaBreanaRoxanaSolanaIlianaAllanaYulianaSahanaSantanaDayana

Names with a curve like Tawana

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

ShondaKarieWindyLatanyaLashawnLatriciaToyaCarieKarrieKerrieShanonShanda

Sibling names for Tawana

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 Tawana

Top names of 1974, Tawana's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1974Girls' names starting with T