Titus

About Titus

Titus is an ancient Roman given name whose original meaning is uncertain. It has a particularly rich historical range: a Roman emperor, an early Christian figure, and Shakespeare's general Titus Andronicus all bear it. The name's short English pronunciation gives those long histories a compact modern form.

Meaning and related forms

Titus was a Roman praenomen, the personal name placed before a family name. One proposed explanation links it with Latin titulus, “title of honor,” but an Oscan origin has also been suggested. Neither supplies a certain meaning.

In English it is pronounced TYE-tus, with stress on the first syllable. The ancient Latin pronunciation had a different opening vowel. Related forms include Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Tito, Polish Tytus, Lithuanian Titas, and Finnish or Estonian Tiitus.

The name has occasionally been used in English since the Protestant Reformation. Its biblical presence offered a route into later naming independently of the Roman emperor or Shakespeare's play.

Emperor Titus

The emperor Titus ruled from 79 to 81 CE, succeeding his father Vespasian as the second ruler of the Flavian dynasty. Before becoming emperor, he led the Roman forces responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 CE.

His short reign included the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. He also completed the Flavian Amphitheatre, later called the Colosseum, in 80.

Those events place the name within both Roman imperial history and surviving monuments. The Arch of Titus in Rome was erected in his honor, preserving his name in one of the city's best-known ancient commemorative structures.

Titus in Christian tradition

The New Testament Titus was a companion and associate of Paul. The Letter to Titus addresses him in connection with organizing the Christian community in Crete, including the appointment of local leaders.

Later tradition remembers him as the island's first bishop. The letter's place in the New Testament helped carry Titus beyond its original Roman setting into Christian naming traditions across different languages.

Titus Andronicus

Shakespeare used Titus for a Roman general in Titus Andronicus. The play begins after his military victories and develops into a violent cycle of revenge involving his family and the imperial household.

The general's loyalty to Rome becomes entangled with loyalty to his children. This is a fictional Roman setting, separate from the biography of Emperor Titus, but it has added another enduring dramatic association to the same given name.

American popularity

Titus increased in the United States from 293 boys in 2000 to 714 in 2010. Its strongest year in the local SSA series was 2015, with 1,325 boys and a rank of #280.

In 2025 there were 910 boys named Titus, ranking #358. The name remained substantially more common than at the start of the century, even after easing from its mid-2010s peak. Its American growth has given an ancient name a sizable contemporary generation.

How popular is Titus?

In 2025, Titus ranked #358 among boys in the United States, with 910 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,325 in 2015. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.