Teka
Teka was last recorded in 1994, when 6 babies were given it; 236 Americans have been recorded with it between 1964 and 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Teka by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Teka mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Teka is “a female given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Teka?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #13,282, in 1994; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
15 babies in 1981, the peak
Teka peaked in 1981, when 15 girls were given it, #4,943 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 6 | #13,282 | 3.4 |
| 1993 | 9 | #9,474 | 5.0 |
| 1991 | 7 | #11,404 | 3.7 |
| 1990 | 8 | #10,109 | 4.2 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,599 | 4.3 |
| 1988 | 8 | #9,161 | 4.5 |
| 1987 | 5 | #13,078 | 2.9 |
| 1986 | 5 | #12,670 | 2.9 |
| 1985 | 9 | #7,509 | 5.2 |
| 1984 | 11 | #6,251 | 6.5 |
Every recorded year (28)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 7 | #8,932 | 4.2 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,503 | 7.7 |
| 1981 | 15 | #4,943 | 9.0 |
| 1980 | 12 | #5,880 | 7.2 |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,805 | 3.1 |
| 1978 | 11 | #5,931 | 7.2 |
| 1977 | 13 | #5,187 | 8.5 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,751 | 3.4 |
| 1975 | 10 | #5,949 | 6.9 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,822 | 5.5 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,596 | 5.5 |
| 1972 | 7 | #7,213 | 4.6 |
| 1971 | 10 | #5,492 | 6.0 |
| 1970 | 10 | #5,371 | 5.7 |
| 1968 | 10 | #4,744 | 6.1 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,727 | 3.6 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,516 | 3.0 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,704 | 2.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Teka a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Teka has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 28 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Teka: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Teka, and how old are they?
An estimated 224 Americans named Teka and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 46 years old and half are between 41 and 52. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 318 people named Teka (277 women and girls, 41 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 227 born in the U.S. The Census count is 40% above 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 931 babies since 1880, Teka is the second most given (25% 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 Teka
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 Teka and names like it
- Compare Teka and TekiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sTeka peaked in 1981.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Teka: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1981The year the most babies were named Teka.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Teka alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with TMost given first.