Tawanda
Tawanda was last recorded in 2003, when 7 babies were given it; 4,058 Americans have been recorded with it between 1944 and 2003 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,790 Americans named Tawanda and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 50 years old and half are between 46 and 55.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tawanda by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Tawanda?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #13,714, in 2003; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
260 babies in 1977, the peak
Tawanda peaked in 1977, when 260 girls were given it, #640 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 7 | #13,714 | under 0.01 |
| 2000 | 5 | #17,370 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 5 | #16,672 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 9 | #10,029 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,729 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 11 | #8,077 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,603 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 19 | #5,221 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 22 | #4,654 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 25 | #4,217 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 45 | #2,694 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 26 | #3,992 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 42 | #2,705 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 50 | #2,268 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 59 | #1,941 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 58 | #1,930 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 72 | #1,647 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 102 | #1,259 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 102 | #1,245 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 112 | #1,208 | 0.07 |
| 1981 | 163 | #925 | 0.10 |
| 1980 | 167 | #907 | 0.10 |
| 1979 | 182 | #858 | 0.11 |
| 1978 | 241 | #666 | 0.16 |
| 1977 | 260 | #640 | 0.17 |
| 1976 | 227 | #673 | 0.15 |
| 1975 | 245 | #636 | 0.17 |
| 1974 | 220 | #678 | 0.15 |
| 1973 | 204 | #715 | 0.14 |
| 1972 | 198 | #723 | 0.13 |
| 1971 | 219 | #697 | 0.13 |
| 1970 | 145 | #909 | 0.08 |
| 1969 | 120 | #989 | 0.07 |
| 1968 | 104 | #1,020 | 0.06 |
| 1967 | 99 | #1,038 | 0.06 |
| 1966 | 84 | #1,170 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 58 | #1,461 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 68 | #1,370 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 54 | #1,542 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 48 | #1,648 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 49 | #1,624 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 28 | #2,238 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 14 | #3,417 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 12 | #3,725 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,907 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,794 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 9 | #4,350 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,532 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,606 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,868 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,969 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 5 | #5,172 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tawanda a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tawanda has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tawanda: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tawanda, and how old are they?
3,790 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 4,058 Americans ever recorded as Tawanda. The median Tawanda alive today is 50 years old; half are between 46 and 55.
The 2020 Census counted 3,311 people named Tawanda (3,229 women and girls, 82 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,868 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 3 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 274 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,590 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 892 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 34 |
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 Tawanda born?
The states with the most babies named Tawanda are Illinois, Florida and North Carolina, with 26% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 314 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Florida | 232 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| North Carolina | 232 | not ranked | 2.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 222 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Alabama | 218 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Georgia | 216 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Virginia | 206 | not ranked | 2.2× |
| Mississippi | 183 | not ranked | 3.5× |
| New York | 181 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 178 | not ranked | 1.5× |
Where Tawanda is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tawanda is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1944 it was given 5.0 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 Tawanda 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 5,502 babies since 1880, Tawanda is the most given (74% 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 Tawanda
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 Tawanda and names like it
- Compare Tawanda and TwandaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sTawanda peaked in 1977.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tawanda since 1910.
- The top names of 1977The year the most babies were named Tawanda.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Tawanda alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with TMost given first.