Tanisha
Tanisha was given to 17 girls in 2025, #6,801 among girls’ names; 19,361 Americans have been recorded with it since 1967 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 18,700 Americans named Tanisha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 33 and 48.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tanisha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tanisha mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tanisha is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tanisha?
#6,801 among girls’ names, 2025
Tanisha fell from #3,175 in 2015 to #6,801 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 29.7 to 10.6 per million.
758 babies in 1982, the peak
Tanisha peaked in 1982, when 758 girls were given it, #318 among girls’ names. The 17 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 17 | #6,801 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 26 | #5,129 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 17 | #6,896 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 19 | #6,438 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 24 | #5,380 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 24 | #5,295 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 40 | #3,779 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 37 | #3,995 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 39 | #3,913 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 44 | #3,580 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 53 | #3,175 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 49 | #3,320 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 58 | #2,932 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 72 | #2,545 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 94 | #2,069 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 107 | #1,896 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 85 | #2,314 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 131 | #1,711 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 130 | #1,694 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 136 | #1,589 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 141 | #1,493 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 136 | #1,486 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 135 | #1,459 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 142 | #1,366 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 165 | #1,229 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 165 | #1,207 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 180 | #1,105 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 249 | #857 | 0.14 |
| 1997 | 292 | #733 | 0.17 |
| 1996 | 421 | #556 | 0.24 |
| 1995 | 447 | #534 | 0.25 |
| 1994 | 573 | #442 | 0.32 |
| 1993 | 579 | #434 | 0.32 |
| 1992 | 668 | #388 | 0.36 |
| 1991 | 681 | #376 | 0.36 |
| 1990 | 681 | #387 | 0.36 |
| 1989 | 615 | #402 | 0.33 |
| 1988 | 618 | #389 | 0.35 |
| 1987 | 685 | #350 | 0.39 |
| 1986 | 679 | #350 | 0.40 |
| 1985 | 631 | #369 | 0.37 |
| 1984 | 657 | #351 | 0.39 |
| 1983 | 724 | #320 | 0.43 |
| 1982 | 758 | #318 | 0.45 |
| 1981 | 693 | #339 | 0.42 |
| 1980 | 751 | #325 | 0.45 |
| 1979 | 687 | #343 | 0.43 |
| 1978 | 652 | #335 | 0.43 |
| 1977 | 735 | #321 | 0.48 |
| 1976 | 655 | #340 | 0.45 |
| 1975 | 631 | #345 | 0.43 |
| 1974 | 611 | #354 | 0.42 |
| 1973 | 525 | #389 | 0.36 |
| 1972 | 629 | #352 | 0.41 |
| 1971 | 374 | #506 | 0.22 |
| 1970 | 129 | #977 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 27 | #2,577 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 12 | #4,199 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,737 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tanisha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tanisha has been given almost only to girls: 21 boys in 59 years of records.
Girls and boys named Tanisha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tanisha, and how old are they?
18,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 19,361 Americans ever recorded as Tanisha. The median Tanisha alive today is 41 years old; half are between 33 and 48.
The 2020 Census counted 16,310 people named Tanisha (16,286 women and girls, 24 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 18,738 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 6,070 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 9,840 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,330 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 444 |
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 Tanisha born?
The states with the most babies named Tanisha are New York, California and Illinois, with 31% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 2,158 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| California | 1,990 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 1,159 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 1,154 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Texas | 952 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 931 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Florida | 852 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 783 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 758 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 707 | not ranked | 1.3× |
Where Tanisha is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tanisha is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1967 it was given 1.9 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 girls’ 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 Tanisha 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 30,545 babies since 1880, Tanisha is the most given (63% of them).
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 Tanisha
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 Tanisha and names like it
- Compare Tanisha and TaneshaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sTanisha peaked in 1982.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tanisha since 1910.
- The top names of 1982The year the most babies were named Tanisha.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Tanisha alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with TMost given first.