Tara
Tara was given to 322 girls in 2025, #847 among girls’ names; 176,355 Americans have been recorded with it since 1939 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 167,000 Americans named Tara and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 45 years old and half are between 38 and 52.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tara by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tara mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tara is “a female given name transferred from the place name, of 20th century and later usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “high place” (literally).
Also “a female given name from Sanskrit.”
Borrowed from Irish Teamhrach, genitive of Teamhair, from Old Irish Temair (literally “high place”). The female given name is derived from the name of the plantation in Gone with the Wind, named for the place in Ireland.
/ˈtɑːɹə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tara?
#847 among girls’ names, 2025
Tara rose from #914 in 2015 to #847 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.17 to 0.20 per 1,000.
7,268 babies in 1972, the peak
Tara peaked in 1972, when 7,268 babies were given it (7,234 girls, #38 among girls’ names). The 322 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 322 | #847 | 0.20 |
| 2024 | 249 | #1,020 | 0.15 |
| 2023 | 208 | #1,163 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 240 | #1,061 | 0.15 |
| 2021 | 212 | #1,158 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 201 | #1,164 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 257 | #1,006 | 0.15 |
| 2018 | 250 | #1,034 | 0.15 |
| 2017 | 265 | #984 | 0.15 |
| 2016 | 261 | #1,017 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (87)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 301 | #914 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 301 | #906 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 282 | #909 | 0.16 |
| 2012 | 336 | #799 | 0.19 |
| 2011 | 303 | #864 | 0.17 |
| 2010 | 355 | #775 | 0.20 |
| 2009 | 425 | #690 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 491 | #630 | 0.26 |
| 2007 | 581 | #538 | 0.30 |
| 2006 | 685 | #463 | 0.36 |
| 2005 | 929 | #341 | 0.50 |
| 2004 | 977 | #323 | 0.53 |
| 2003 | 927 | #336 | 0.51 |
| 2002 | 1,060 | #295 | 0.59 |
| 2001 | 1,159 | #273 | 0.64 |
| 2000 | 1,338 | #239 | 0.74 |
| 1999 | 1,393 | #231 | 0.79 |
| 1998 | 1,637 | #189 | 0.93 |
| 1997 | 1,768 | #172 | 1.0 |
| 1996 | 1,899 | #167 | 1.1 |
| 1995 | 2,023 | #158 | 1.2 |
| 1994 | 2,185 | #148 | 1.2 |
| 1993 | 2,476 | #132 | 1.4 |
| 1992 | 2,837 | #118 | 1.5 |
| 1991 | 3,326 | #104 | 1.8 |
| 1990 | 3,826 | #85 | 2.0 |
| 1989 | 4,370 | #70 | 2.4 |
| 1988 | 4,606 | #67 | 2.6 |
| 1987 | 4,446 | #69 | 2.6 |
| 1986 | 5,085 | #56 | 3.0 |
| 1985 | 6,102 | #51 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 6,284 | #49 | 3.7 |
| 1983 | 6,272 | #51 | 3.8 |
| 1982 | 6,524 | #47 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 6,366 | #45 | 3.8 |
| 1980 | 6,283 | #43 | 3.8 |
| 1979 | 6,806 | #38 | 4.2 |
| 1978 | 6,330 | #40 | 4.1 |
| 1977 | 7,198 | #35 | 4.7 |
| 1976 | 6,020 | #42 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 6,455 | #41 | 4.4 |
| 1974 | 6,657 | #39 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 6,707 | #37 | 4.6 |
| 1972 | 7,234 | #38 | 4.8 |
| 1971 | 6,336 | #49 | 3.8 |
| 1970 | 5,329 | #69 | 3.0 |
| 1969 | 3,520 | #107 | 2.1 |
| 1968 | 2,186 | #147 | 1.3 |
| 1967 | 1,288 | #229 | 0.78 |
| 1966 | 1,291 | #234 | 0.76 |
| 1965 | 1,168 | #250 | 0.66 |
| 1964 | 1,241 | #250 | 0.65 |
| 1963 | 1,128 | #262 | 0.59 |
| 1962 | 1,094 | #270 | 0.56 |
| 1961 | 943 | #300 | 0.47 |
| 1960 | 684 | #367 | 0.34 |
| 1959 | 610 | #384 | 0.30 |
| 1958 | 467 | #441 | 0.23 |
| 1957 | 463 | #436 | 0.23 |
| 1956 | 452 | #431 | 0.23 |
| 1955 | 432 | #425 | 0.22 |
| 1954 | 259 | #555 | 0.13 |
| 1953 | 151 | #744 | 0.08 |
| 1952 | 140 | #753 | 0.08 |
| 1951 | 99 | #926 | 0.05 |
| 1950 | 102 | #883 | 0.06 |
| 1949 | 90 | #942 | 0.05 |
| 1948 | 73 | #1,038 | 0.04 |
| 1947 | 46 | #1,373 | 0.03 |
| 1946 | 56 | #1,144 | 0.04 |
| 1945 | 28 | #1,579 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 27 | #1,603 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 24 | #1,786 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 21 | #1,909 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 14 | #2,379 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 13 | #2,401 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 7 | #3,743 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tara a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tara has been given almost only to girls: 543 boys in 87 years of records.
Girls and boys named Tara: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tara, and how old are they?
167,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 176,355 Americans ever recorded as Tara. The median Tara alive today is 45 years old; half are between 38 and 52.
The 2020 Census counted 158,365 people named Tara (157,722 women and girls, 643 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 168,493 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 68 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 7,110 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 76,000 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 66,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,330 |
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 Tara born?
The states with the most babies named Tara are New York, California and Pennsylvania, with 24% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 16,911 | #626 | 1.3× |
| California | 13,424 | #515 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 11,391 | #1,608 | 1.3× |
| Ohio | 8,923 | #1,258 | 1.0× |
| New Jersey | 8,458 | #933 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 8,348 | #876 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 7,368 | #540 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 6,749 | #997 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 6,304 | #1,050 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 4,997 | #476 | 1.1× |
Where Tara is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tara is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1939 it was given 1.6 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 Tara 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 189,865 babies since 1880, Tara is the most given (93% of them). In 2025 it was given to 322 of their 361 babies (89%), 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 Tara
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 Tara and names like it
- Compare Tara and TarahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sTara peaked in 1972.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tara since 1910.
- From place namesWiktionary’s origin for Tara: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1972The year the most babies were named Tara.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Tara alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with TMost given first.