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NameAlmanac

Thomas

Boys’ name Recorded 1880-2025

Thomas was given to 6,917 boys in 2025, #34 among boys’ names; 2,367,087 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).

An estimated 1.43 million Americans named Thomas and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (61% of everyone recorded); the median is 58 years old and half are between 37 and 70.

Thomas is the #11 most common first name among living American men and boys, by this estimate.

Babies named Thomas each year, first recorded in 1880
Thomas, 1880-2025; highest in 1952.10k20k30k40k50k188019001920194019601980200020251952 peak: 48,725
Thomas, 1880-2025; highest in 1952.10k20k30k40k50k188019001920194019601980200020251952 peak: 48,725
Thomas, 1880-2025; highest in 1952.10k20k30k40k50k18801905193019551980200520251952 peak: 48,725
Thomas, 1880-2025; highest in 1952.10k20k30k40k50k18801930198020251952 peak: 48,725

Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).

Thomas or ThomesNames of the 1950sNames in New York

Births of Thomas by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.

What does Thomas mean?

Wiktionary, English section

Thomas is “a male given name from Aramaic of biblical origin, popular since the 13th century.” Its etymology gives the sense “twin” (תאמא).

Inherited from Middle English Thomas, from Latin Thōmās m (as in the Vulgate), from Ancient Greek Θωμᾶς m (Thōmâs), the Biblical Greek transcription of Aramaic תאומא or תאמא (“twin”), the nickname of one of the Twelve Apostles. In the gospel of John (11:16, 20:24), the Aramaic nickname is also translated into Greek, as δίδυμος m (dídumos). Used as a given name since the Middle Ages, e.g. Thomas the Presbyter (7th century), Thomas the Slav (8th century), Thomas of Bayeux (died 1100). (infidel or doubter): In reference to the doubting Apostle.

/ˈtɑ.məs/

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary, entry Thomas (English), CC BY‑SA 4.0. Quoted from the entry; text after a cross-reference to another sense is left out.

Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).

How popular is Thomas?

#34 among boys’ names, 2025

Thomas rose from #51 in 2015 to #34 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 3.8 to 4.0 per 1,000.

48,725 babies in 1952, the peak

Thomas peaked in 1952, when 48,725 babies were given it (48,647 boys, #8 among boys’ names). The 6,924 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 14% of that peak.

Thomas by year
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 boys
20256,917#344.0
20246,596#393.8
20236,625#413.9
20226,512#453.7
20216,680#463.8
20206,452#453.7
20196,667#473.7
20186,840#493.8
20177,187#493.9
20167,367#483.9
Every recorded year (146)
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 boys
20157,204#513.8
20147,043#543.7
20136,799#613.6
20126,855#633.6
20116,929#633.6
20107,136#623.7
20097,728#573.9
20088,370#524.1
20078,935#524.3
20069,514#514.6
200510,041#405.0
200410,504#375.3
200310,935#365.5
200211,293#365.8
200112,148#336.3
200012,638#336.4
199912,795#316.7
199812,889#316.7
199712,899#316.8
199613,804#287.3
199514,163#277.4
199414,910#277.7
199314,868#277.6
199215,290#277.7
199116,789#288.3
199018,231#268.9
198918,439#239.2
198818,806#239.8
198718,139#249.7
198617,362#269.4
198517,609#259.5
198417,596#259.7
198317,565#249.8
198217,578#239.7
198117,159#269.6
198017,564#259.8
197916,454#269.6
197816,481#2310.0
197716,586#2210.1
197616,122#2310.3
197516,532#2010.6
197417,268#2011.0
197317,921#1911.5
197219,557#2012.1
197123,149#1713.1
197026,669#1714.4
196927,465#1315.4
196827,420#1215.8
196728,247#1216.2
196629,003#1016.3
196531,595#917.0
196434,463#917.3
196335,490#917.5
196236,529#917.7
196137,565#917.7
196039,278#918.4
195940,296#918.9
195842,088#919.8
195744,625#920.7
195644,836#921.2
195545,855#822.3
195447,159#823.1
195347,008#823.8
195248,647#825.0
195148,275#825.6
195045,596#825.5
194945,192#825.5
194843,780#825.0
194744,842#824.5
194638,877#823.9
194531,874#823.7
194431,604#823.2
194332,874#823.0
194231,100#822.5
194126,641#821.7
194023,991#820.7
193922,129#920.0
193821,381#919.3
193719,772#918.5
193618,342#817.7
193517,684#917.0
193417,373#916.8
193316,508#1016.6
193216,834#1016.1
193116,847#1016.2
193017,008#1115.5
192916,272#1115.1
192816,582#1115.0
192717,027#1115.1
192616,592#1114.9
192516,688#1115.0
192416,555#1114.6
192315,886#1214.5
192215,261#1114.0
192115,308#1113.9
192014,936#1114.0
191913,434#1013.7
191813,910#1013.7
191712,611#1013.6
191611,998#1013.5
191511,490#1013.5
19148,850#1113.5
19137,096#1013.8
19126,087#1014.2
19113,292#1014.6
19102,851#1214.7
19092,468#1015.0
19082,301#1014.9
19072,174#1114.8
19062,176#1016.3
19052,135#1016.1
19042,057#1116.1
19031,962#1016.5
19022,134#1117.4
19011,820#1117.1
19002,556#1117.0
18991,811#1117.1
18982,161#1017.6
18971,980#1117.6
18962,088#1217.5
18952,153#1118.3
18942,170#1218.7
18932,157#1219.2
18922,413#1219.8
18911,982#1219.6
18902,200#1219.8
18892,233#1220.2
18882,449#1220.3
18872,151#921.2
18862,337#1021.1
18852,266#1021.0
18842,572#822.5
18832,316#1022.1
18822,610#823.0
18812,282#922.7
18802,534#822.9

Download Thomas’s births by year (CSV)

Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.

Is Thomas a boy’s or a girl’s name?

Thomas has been given almost only to boys: 8,511 girls in 146 years of records.

Girls and boys named Thomas: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.

How many people are named Thomas, and how old are they?

1.43 million alive in 2026, estimated

That is 61% of the 2,367,087 Americans ever recorded as Thomas. The median Thomas alive today is 58 years old; half are between 37 and 70.

The 2020 Census counted 1,506,606 people named Thomas (1,484 women and girls, 1,505,122 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,552,006 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% below that prediction.

Alive today, by age

100-109285
90-9911,800
80-8997,200
70-79278,000
60-69283,000
50-59 (median)193,000
40-49160,000
30-39156,000
20-29113,000
10-1973,600
0-960,100

Alive today, by generation

By generation
GenerationBornAlive
Silent Generation1928-194590,900
Baby Boomers1946-1964531,000
Generation X1965-1980306,000
Millennials1981-1996256,000
Generation Z1997-2012159,000
Generation Alpha2013-202588,300

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 Thomas born?

The states with the most babies named Thomas are New York, Pennsylvania and California, with 25% of its births recorded by state since 1910.

States with the most births: girls and boys together; rank among boys’ names in the state in 2025
StateSince 1910Rank, boysvs. national
New York243,422#361.3×
Pennsylvania184,416#271.3×
California136,755#690.7×
Illinois134,326#331.1×
Ohio133,246#271.1×
Michigan106,122#391.1×
New Jersey95,205#241.4×
Texas93,099#550.6×
Massachusetts83,355#161.2×
Wisconsin62,785#441.2×

Where Thomas is more common than its national share predicts

Relative to its national share, Thomas is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1910 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.

New Jersey1.39×
Pennsylvania1.32×
New York1.27×
Connecticut1.27×
Massachusetts1.24×
Wisconsin1.19×
Ohio1.14×
Minnesota1.13×

Bars start at 1× (as often as the national share predicts).

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 Thomas 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 2,368,015 babies since 1880, Thomas is the most given (100% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6,924 of their 6,924 babies (100%), again the most given.

Thomas and the names spelled alike
NameSince 1880Births 2025Peak year
Thomas2,367,0876,9241952
Thomes411under 51944
Thoms210under 51969
Thoams185under 51985
Thomos122under 51945

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 Thomas

Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.

NameRecorded1880-2025
Allen273,662
James5,274,520
Peter591,531
Martin317,037
Dan107,130
Lonnie101,481

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 Thomas and names like it

  1. Compare Thomas and ThomesBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
  2. The most given names of the 1950sThomas peaked in 1952.
  3. New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Thomas since 1910.
  4. The top names of 1952The year the most babies were named Thomas.
  5. The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Thomas alive today were born 1946-1964.
  6. Names starting with TMost given first.

Compare Thomas with another name