Tatum
Tatum is a unisex name: 1,661 girls and 1,736 boys were given it in 2025 (#189 among girls’ names and #202 among boys’, #180 among all names counting both); 41,874 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Tatum every year since 2023.
An estimated 41,500 Americans named Tatum and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 4 and 19.
Tatum is among the most evenly shared names of 2025: #3 of 43 unisex names by how close its split is to half and half.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tatum by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tatum mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tatum is “a female given name transferred from the surname.”
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From Tatham, from Old English Tāta, a personal name of unknown meaning + hām.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tatum?
#189 among girls’ names, 2025
Tatum rose from #409 in 2015 to #189 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.44 to 1.0 per 1,000.
3,397 babies in 2025, the peak
Tatum peaked in 2025, when 3,397 babies were given it (1,661 girls, #189 among girls’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,502 girls.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,661 | #189 | 1,736 | #202 |
| 2024 | 1,502 | #205 | 1,841 | #195 |
| 2023 | 1,319 | #227 | 1,504 | #233 |
| 2022 | 1,156 | #274 | 1,058 | #318 |
| 2021 | 1,137 | #279 | 837 | #386 |
| 2020 | 903 | #344 | 598 | #490 |
| 2019 | 882 | #359 | 596 | #487 |
| 2018 | 744 | #416 | 529 | #534 |
| 2017 | 713 | #444 | 457 | #598 |
| 2016 | 775 | #422 | 417 | #637 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 783 | #409 | 473 | #587 |
| 2014 | 834 | #391 | 465 | #593 |
| 2013 | 986 | #329 | 487 | #545 |
| 2012 | 950 | #329 | 422 | #599 |
| 2011 | 928 | #346 | 314 | #725 |
| 2010 | 965 | #335 | 301 | #752 |
| 2009 | 796 | #395 | 139 | #1,271 |
| 2008 | 885 | #371 | 134 | #1,302 |
| 2007 | 991 | #336 | 147 | #1,205 |
| 2006 | 950 | #347 | 108 | #1,445 |
| 2005 | 915 | #343 | 91 | #1,550 |
| 2004 | 814 | #384 | 71 | #1,779 |
| 2003 | 788 | #384 | 44 | #2,417 |
| 2002 | 752 | #392 | 39 | #2,547 |
| 2001 | 696 | #413 | 37 | #2,606 |
| 2000 | 675 | #420 | 43 | #2,287 |
| 1999 | 647 | #428 | 41 | #2,256 |
| 1998 | 689 | #399 | 28 | #2,915 |
| 1997 | 430 | #549 | 19 | #3,713 |
| 1996 | 203 | #947 | 27 | #2,821 |
| 1995 | 184 | #1,009 | 13 | #4,747 |
| 1994 | 189 | #982 | 20 | #3,447 |
| 1993 | 172 | #1,059 | 15 | #4,192 |
| 1992 | 128 | #1,318 | 8 | #6,619 |
| 1991 | 117 | #1,377 | 9 | #5,879 |
| 1990 | 98 | #1,561 | 11 | #4,949 |
| 1989 | 79 | #1,727 | 6 | #7,796 |
| 1988 | 76 | #1,700 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 86 | #1,509 | 8 | #5,395 |
| 1986 | 99 | #1,341 | 7 | #5,861 |
| 1985 | 59 | #1,902 | 9 | #4,646 |
| 1984 | 56 | #1,901 | 6 | #6,235 |
| 1983 | 55 | #1,902 | 5 | #7,216 |
| 1982 | 53 | #1,987 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 60 | #1,845 | 8 | #4,910 |
| 1980 | 100 | #1,284 | 21 | #2,436 |
| 1979 | 80 | #1,495 | 6 | #5,965 |
| 1978 | 107 | #1,184 | 11 | #3,584 |
| 1977 | 100 | #1,224 | 16 | #2,771 |
| 1976 | 78 | #1,382 | 10 | #3,690 |
| 1975 | 91 | #1,250 | 10 | #3,633 |
| 1974 | 83 | #1,299 | 14 | #2,782 |
| 1973 | 25 | #2,821 | 9 | #3,663 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,509 | under 5 |
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 Tatum a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 41,874 Americans recorded as Tatum, 68% are girls and 32% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Tatum: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tatum, and how old are they?
41,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 41,874 Americans ever recorded as Tatum. The median Tatum alive today is 11 years old; half are between 4 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 24,725 people named Tatum (19,634 women and girls, 5,091 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 26,745 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 723 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,820 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,700 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 24,200 |
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 Tatum born?
The states with the most babies named Tatum are Texas, Florida and California, with 19% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 281 | #238 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 186 | #222 | 0.6× |
| California | 182 | #307 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 177 | #129 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 153 | #177 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 129 | #157 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 121 | #121 | 1.2× |
| Indiana | 117 | #130 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 109 | #206 | 0.6× |
| Missouri | 104 | #151 | 1.2× |
Where Tatum is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tatum is most over-represented in Arizona: since 1966 it was given 2.3 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 Tatum 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 48,458 babies since 1880, Tatum is the most given (86% of them). In 2025 it was given to 3,397 of their 3,907 babies (87%), 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 Tatum
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 Tatum and names like it
- Compare Tatum and TaytumBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sTatum peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tatum since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Tatum: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Tatum.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Tatum alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.