Telly
Telly was last recorded in 2024, when 5 babies were given it; 1,609 Americans have been recorded with it between 1967 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,490 Americans named Telly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 50 years old and half are between 41 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Telly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Telly?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #14,024, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
312 babies in 1974, the peak
Telly peaked in 1974, when 312 babies were given it (294 boys, #469 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #14,024 | under 0.01 |
| 2021 | 5 | #13,856 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 11 | #7,443 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 9 | #8,756 | under 0.01 |
| 2016 | 6 | #11,999 | under 0.01 |
| 2015 | 10 | #7,974 | 0.01 |
| 2014 | 7 | #10,588 | under 0.01 |
| 2013 | 7 | #10,604 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 9 | #8,784 | under 0.01 |
| 2011 | 14 | #6,210 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5 | #14,029 | under 0.01 |
| 2009 | 7 | #10,839 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 7 | #10,907 | under 0.01 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,835 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 12 | #6,861 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 16 | #5,245 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 8 | #8,827 | under 0.01 |
| 2003 | 10 | #7,181 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 15 | #5,103 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 19 | #4,271 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 24 | #3,518 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 13 | #5,280 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 22 | #3,470 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 22 | #3,334 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 13 | #4,843 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 18 | #3,670 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 17 | #3,885 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 18 | #3,636 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 8 | #6,624 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 9 | #5,759 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,803 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 9 | #4,802 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 12 | #3,775 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 10 | #4,173 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 15 | #3,056 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 18 | #2,697 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 18 | #2,671 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 22 | #2,359 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 24 | #2,148 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 59 | #1,168 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 136 | #735 | 0.08 |
| 1976 | 207 | #563 | 0.13 |
| 1975 | 277 | #483 | 0.18 |
| 1974 | 294 | #469 | 0.19 |
| 1973 | 40 | #1,326 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,390 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 8 | #3,338 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,478 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Telly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,609 Americans recorded as Telly, 5% are girls and 95% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Telly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Telly, and how old are they?
1,490 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 1,609 Americans ever recorded as Telly. The median Telly alive today is 50 years old; half are between 41 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 1,333 people named Telly (211 women and girls, 1,122 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,502 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 | 1,050 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 167 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 208 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 60 |
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 Telly born?
The states with the most babies named Telly are Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, with 33% of its births recorded by state since 1910; South Carolina is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 108 | not ranked | 2.5× |
| North Carolina | 81 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| South Carolina | 70 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Louisiana | 69 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| Illinois | 67 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 55 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Texas | 43 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| New York | 37 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Alabama | 35 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 34 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Telly is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Telly is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1967 it was given 2.5 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 boys’ 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 Telly with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Telly
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 Telly and names like it
- Compare Telly and ShadBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sTelly peaked in 1974.
- Georgia’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Telly since 1910.
- The top names of 1974The year the most babies were named Telly.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Telly alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with TMost given first.