Tahir
Tahir was given to 53 boys in 2025, #2,535 among boys’ names; 1,976 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,930 Americans named Tahir and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 7 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tahir by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tahir mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Tahir is “a male given name from Arabic” Its etymology gives the sense “pure, virtuous” (طَاهِر).
Inherited from Ottoman Turkish طاهر (Tâhir), from Arabic طَاهِر (ṭāhir, “pure, virtuous”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tahir?
#2,535 among boys’ names, 2025
Tahir rose from #2,803 in 2015 to #2,535 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 22.4 to 31.0 per million.
88 babies in 2023, the peak
Tahir peaked in 2023, when 88 boys were given it, #1,829 among boys’ names. The 53 births of 2025 are 60% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 53 | #2,535 | 31.0 |
| 2024 | 83 | #1,918 | 48.2 |
| 2023 | 88 | #1,829 | 51.4 |
| 2022 | 82 | #1,915 | 47.0 |
| 2021 | 77 | #1,955 | 44.0 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,497 | 30.1 |
| 2019 | 52 | #2,552 | 29.0 |
| 2018 | 51 | #2,542 | 28.1 |
| 2017 | 52 | #2,487 | 28.1 |
| 2016 | 47 | #2,656 | 24.8 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 43 | #2,803 | 22.4 |
| 2014 | 44 | #2,745 | 22.9 |
| 2013 | 34 | #3,253 | 18.0 |
| 2012 | 39 | #2,994 | 20.6 |
| 2011 | 37 | #3,102 | 19.5 |
| 2010 | 43 | #2,819 | 22.4 |
| 2009 | 51 | #2,517 | 25.7 |
| 2008 | 49 | #2,575 | 24.0 |
| 2007 | 45 | #2,713 | 21.7 |
| 2006 | 60 | #2,170 | 29.2 |
| 2005 | 52 | #2,287 | 26.0 |
| 2004 | 55 | #2,153 | 27.7 |
| 2003 | 56 | #2,049 | 28.3 |
| 2002 | 50 | #2,144 | 25.8 |
| 2001 | 48 | #2,176 | 24.7 |
| 2000 | 45 | #2,215 | 22.9 |
| 1999 | 63 | #1,683 | 32.8 |
| 1998 | 39 | #2,307 | 20.4 |
| 1997 | 38 | #2,252 | 20.2 |
| 1996 | 38 | #2,208 | 20.1 |
| 1995 | 34 | #2,338 | 17.9 |
| 1994 | 28 | #2,672 | 14.5 |
| 1993 | 24 | #2,930 | 12.2 |
| 1992 | 23 | #2,982 | 11.5 |
| 1991 | 22 | #2,968 | 10.9 |
| 1990 | 29 | #2,423 | 14.1 |
| 1989 | 11 | #4,770 | 5.5 |
| 1988 | 19 | #2,936 | 9.9 |
| 1987 | 17 | #3,053 | 9.1 |
| 1986 | 6 | #6,625 | 3.3 |
| 1985 | 10 | #4,296 | 5.4 |
| 1984 | 15 | #3,086 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 14 | #3,206 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 17 | #2,810 | 9.4 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,904 | 4.5 |
| 1980 | 13 | #3,405 | 7.3 |
| 1979 | 24 | #2,145 | 13.9 |
| 1978 | 17 | #2,654 | 10.4 |
| 1977 | 23 | #2,123 | 14.0 |
| 1976 | 19 | #2,406 | 12.1 |
| 1975 | 15 | #2,738 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 6 | #5,158 | 3.8 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,443 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 9 | #3,581 | 5.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Tahir a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tahir has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tahir: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tahir, and how old are they?
1,930 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,976 Americans ever recorded as Tahir. The median Tahir alive today is 18 years old; half are between 7 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 2,680 people named Tahir (41 women and girls, 2,639 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,524 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 121 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 301 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 757 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 753 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Tahir born?
The states with the most babies named Tahir are Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,217 | 3.1× |
| New York | 5 | #2,010 | 2.4× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,447 | 0.1× |
Where Tahir is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tahir is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1972 it was given 3.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Tahir with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 2,316 babies since 1880, Tahir is the most given (85% of them). In 2025 it was given to 53 of their 66 babies (80%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Tahir
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Tahir and names like it
- Compare Tahir and TaherBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sTahir peaked in 2023.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tahir since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Tahir: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Tahir.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Tahir alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with TMost given first.