Tenzin
Tenzin is given to both girls and boys: 36 girls and 63 boys were given it in 2025 (#4,060 among girls’ names and #2,254 among boys’, #3,572 among all names counting both); 2,906 Americans have been recorded with it since 1992 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Tenzin every year since 2024.
An estimated 2,880 Americans named Tenzin and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 7 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tenzin by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tenzin mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tenzin is “a unisex given name from Tibetan.”
Borrowed from Tibetan བསྟན་འཛིན (bstan 'dzin).
/ˈtɛnzɪn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tenzin?
#2,254 among boys’ names, 2025
Tenzin fell from #1,908 in 2015 to #2,254 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 40.2 to 36.9 per million.
141 babies in 2014, the peak
Tenzin peaked in 2014, when 141 babies were given it (86 boys, #1,762 among boys’ names). The 99 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 70% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 36 | #4,060 | 63 | #2,254 |
| 2024 | 50 | #3,220 | 63 | #2,286 |
| 2023 | 66 | #2,670 | 48 | #2,728 |
| 2022 | 48 | #3,360 | 67 | #2,186 |
| 2021 | 47 | #3,384 | 54 | #2,490 |
| 2020 | 34 | #4,156 | 62 | #2,232 |
| 2019 | 56 | #2,960 | 74 | #1,998 |
| 2018 | 53 | #3,099 | 66 | #2,140 |
| 2017 | 51 | #3,190 | 80 | #1,857 |
| 2016 | 51 | #3,224 | 86 | #1,786 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #3,056 | 77 | #1,908 |
| 2014 | 55 | #3,073 | 86 | #1,762 |
| 2013 | 50 | #3,262 | 74 | #1,910 |
| 2012 | 54 | #3,128 | 83 | #1,796 |
| 2011 | 52 | #3,218 | 67 | #2,032 |
| 2010 | 50 | #3,299 | 65 | #2,092 |
| 2009 | 61 | #2,886 | 63 | #2,162 |
| 2008 | 53 | #3,217 | 58 | #2,287 |
| 2007 | 47 | #3,526 | 59 | #2,253 |
| 2006 | 36 | #4,157 | 43 | #2,733 |
| 2005 | 38 | #3,862 | 46 | #2,484 |
| 2004 | 28 | #4,804 | 40 | #2,686 |
| 2003 | 35 | #3,938 | 30 | #3,176 |
| 2002 | 24 | #5,072 | 38 | #2,594 |
| 2001 | 21 | #5,550 | 29 | #3,134 |
| 2000 | 27 | #4,512 | 35 | #2,663 |
| 1999 | 31 | #3,884 | 29 | #2,927 |
| 1998 | 22 | #4,942 | 27 | #3,005 |
| 1997 | 14 | #6,809 | 10 | #6,038 |
| 1996 | 7 | #11,702 | 9 | #6,433 |
| 1995 | under 5 | 9 | #6,345 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 7 | #7,677 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 6 | #8,337 |
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 Tenzin a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,906 Americans recorded as Tenzin, 43% are girls and 57% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Tenzin: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tenzin, and how old are they?
2,880 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,906 Americans ever recorded as Tenzin. The median Tenzin alive today is 13 years old; half are between 7 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 5,399 people named Tenzin (2,491 women and girls, 2,908 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,272 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 times 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 37 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,540 |
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 Tenzin born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 47 | #558 | 7.1× |
| Minnesota | 17 | #475 | 5.7× |
Where Tenzin is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tenzin is most over-represented in New York: since 1992 it was given 7.1 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 Tenzin 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,986 babies since 1880, Tenzin is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 99 of their 99 babies (100%), 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 Tenzin
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 Tenzin and names like it
- Compare Tenzin and TenzingBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sTenzin peaked in 2014.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tenzin since 1910.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Tenzin.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Tenzin alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.