Tai
Tai is given to both girls and boys: 11 girls and 53 boys were given it in 2025 (#9,394 among girls’ names and #2,536 among boys’, #4,784 among all names counting both); 4,937 Americans have been recorded with it since 1922 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Tai every year since 1998.
An estimated 4,790 Americans named Tai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 17 and 39.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tai is “a female given name from Chinese.”
/taɪ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tai?
#2,536 among boys’ names, 2025
Tai fell from #2,293 in 2015 to #2,536 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 30.3 to 31.0 per million.
199 babies in 1980, the peak
Tai peaked in 1980, when 199 babies were given it (40 boys, #1,543 among boys’ names). The 64 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 32% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #9,394 | 53 | #2,536 |
| 2024 | 12 | #8,886 | 58 | #2,413 |
| 2023 | 16 | #7,212 | 49 | #2,686 |
| 2022 | 16 | #7,249 | 55 | #2,512 |
| 2021 | 10 | #10,218 | 60 | #2,319 |
| 2020 | 15 | #7,528 | 59 | #2,319 |
| 2019 | 14 | #8,091 | 46 | #2,759 |
| 2018 | 10 | #10,476 | 49 | #2,611 |
| 2017 | 17 | #7,060 | 53 | #2,442 |
| 2016 | 16 | #7,560 | 60 | #2,253 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 16 | #7,572 | 58 | #2,293 |
| 2014 | 15 | #8,011 | 70 | #2,038 |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,919 | 71 | #1,960 |
| 2012 | 15 | #8,173 | 72 | #1,979 |
| 2011 | 24 | #5,705 | 89 | #1,686 |
| 2010 | 14 | #8,652 | 71 | #1,970 |
| 2009 | 22 | #6,288 | 90 | #1,729 |
| 2008 | 27 | #5,416 | 84 | #1,791 |
| 2007 | 36 | #4,284 | 103 | #1,535 |
| 2006 | 31 | #4,675 | 121 | #1,348 |
| 2005 | 36 | #4,019 | 107 | #1,399 |
| 2004 | 41 | #3,616 | 133 | #1,175 |
| 2003 | 36 | #3,863 | 131 | #1,153 |
| 2002 | 48 | #3,058 | 88 | #1,455 |
| 2001 | 42 | #3,305 | 95 | #1,352 |
| 2000 | 32 | #3,965 | 101 | #1,285 |
| 1999 | 40 | #3,239 | 96 | #1,278 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,964 | 65 | #1,615 |
| 1997 | 42 | #2,928 | 50 | #1,878 |
| 1996 | 30 | #3,712 | 47 | #1,924 |
| 1995 | 23 | #4,495 | 44 | #1,946 |
| 1994 | 32 | #3,520 | 53 | #1,709 |
| 1993 | 32 | #3,494 | 44 | #1,893 |
| 1992 | 39 | #3,026 | 42 | #1,948 |
| 1991 | 55 | #2,345 | 39 | #1,971 |
| 1990 | 38 | #3,012 | 36 | #2,076 |
| 1989 | 27 | #3,768 | 29 | #2,340 |
| 1988 | 25 | #3,786 | 40 | #1,761 |
| 1987 | 23 | #3,844 | 32 | #1,968 |
| 1986 | 42 | #2,414 | 42 | #1,583 |
| 1985 | 38 | #2,589 | 26 | #2,166 |
| 1984 | 59 | #1,833 | 38 | #1,603 |
| 1983 | 79 | #1,473 | 37 | #1,625 |
| 1982 | 88 | #1,395 | 37 | #1,647 |
| 1981 | 126 | #1,108 | 35 | #1,687 |
| 1980 | 159 | #947 | 40 | #1,543 |
| 1979 | 47 | #2,145 | 36 | #1,625 |
| 1978 | 29 | #2,850 | 21 | #2,267 |
| 1977 | 21 | #3,592 | 31 | #1,739 |
| 1976 | 34 | #2,427 | 36 | #1,533 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,564 | 16 | #2,626 |
| 1974 | 9 | #6,196 | 15 | #2,656 |
| 1973 | 7 | #7,337 | 12 | #2,999 |
| 1972 | under 5 | 12 | #2,969 | |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,551 | 13 | #2,796 |
| 1970 | 5 | #9,166 | 10 | #3,255 |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,364 | 7 | #3,901 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,492 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | under 5 | 5 | #4,559 | |
| 1959 | 7 | #5,503 | under 5 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 5 | #4,876 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 5 | #4,877 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Tai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,937 Americans recorded as Tai, 37% are girls and 63% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Tai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tai, and how old are they?
4,790 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 4,937 Americans ever recorded as Tai. The median Tai alive today is 25 years old; half are between 17 and 39.
The 2020 Census counted 10,097 people named Tai (2,390 women and girls, 7,707 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,437 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.3 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 553 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,320 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 912 |
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 Tai born?
The states with the most babies named Tai are California, New York and Texas, with 65% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 691 | #2,434 | 1.1× |
| New York | 189 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Texas | 169 | #1,739 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 129 | #1,809 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 56 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Virginia | 39 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 38 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Louisiana | 38 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 36 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Washington | 33 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Tai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tai is most over-represented in California: since 1922 it was given 1.1 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 Tai 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 38,513 babies since 1880, Tai is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 64 of their 2,251 babies (2.8%), the third most given that year.
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 Tai
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1920-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Thai | 1,426 | |
| Alika | 1,205 | |
| Adrean | 1,216 | |
| Corinthian | 1,009 |
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 Tai and names like it
- Compare Tai and TateBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sTai peaked in 1980.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tai since 1910.
- Chinese namesWiktionary’s origin for Tai: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1980The year the most babies were named Tai.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Tai alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with TMost given first.