Tenesha
Tenesha was last recorded in 2001, when 10 babies were given it; 1,438 Americans have been recorded with it between 1967 and 2001 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,380 Americans named Tenesha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 42 years old and half are between 37 and 47.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tenesha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Tenesha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #10,038, in 2001; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
97 babies in 1984, the peak
Tenesha peaked in 1984, when 97 girls were given it, #1,294 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 10 | #10,038 | 5.6 |
| 2000 | 11 | #9,111 | 6.1 |
| 1999 | 10 | #9,406 | 5.6 |
| 1998 | 12 | #7,980 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 17 | #5,845 | 9.8 |
| 1996 | 17 | #5,750 | 9.7 |
| 1995 | 31 | #3,574 | 17.6 |
| 1994 | 36 | #3,220 | 20.2 |
| 1993 | 31 | #3,570 | 17.1 |
| 1992 | 41 | #2,912 | 22.2 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 46 | #2,649 | 24.5 |
| 1990 | 58 | #2,227 | 30.5 |
| 1989 | 65 | #1,974 | 35.3 |
| 1988 | 67 | #1,858 | 37.6 |
| 1987 | 64 | #1,836 | 36.8 |
| 1986 | 63 | #1,813 | 36.7 |
| 1985 | 60 | #1,878 | 34.9 |
| 1984 | 97 | #1,294 | 57.6 |
| 1983 | 71 | #1,582 | 42.5 |
| 1982 | 83 | #1,458 | 49.0 |
| 1981 | 68 | #1,696 | 40.8 |
| 1980 | 69 | #1,674 | 41.6 |
| 1979 | 64 | #1,729 | 39.9 |
| 1978 | 64 | #1,666 | 41.8 |
| 1977 | 68 | #1,595 | 44.4 |
| 1976 | 50 | #1,861 | 34.1 |
| 1975 | 48 | #1,902 | 32.9 |
| 1974 | 35 | #2,288 | 23.8 |
| 1973 | 29 | #2,557 | 19.9 |
| 1972 | 24 | #2,894 | 15.8 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,499 | 3.0 |
| 1970 | 12 | #4,738 | 6.9 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,566 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,991 | 4.2 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tenesha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tenesha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 34 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tenesha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tenesha, and how old are they?
1,380 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 1,438 Americans ever recorded as Tenesha. The median Tenesha alive today is 42 years old; half are between 37 and 47.
The 2020 Census counted 1,203 people named Tenesha (1,203 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,398 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 454 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 871 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 59 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 6,064 babies since 1880, Tenesha is the second most given (24% 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 Tenesha
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 Tenesha and names like it
- Compare Tenesha and TenishaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sTenesha peaked in 1984.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tenesha since 1910.
- The top names of 1984The year the most babies were named Tenesha.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Tenesha alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with TMost given first.