Tien
Tien was given to 14 boys in 2025, #6,408 among boys’ names; 1,320 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,280 Americans named Tien and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 18 and 37.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tien by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Tien?
#6,408 among boys’ names, 2025
Tien fell from #4,066 in 2015 to #6,408 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 13.6 to 8.2 per million.
57 babies in 1992, the peak
Tien peaked in 1992, when 57 babies were given it (30 boys, #2,456 among boys’ names). The 14 births of 2025 are 25% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 14 | #6,408 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 7 | #10,812 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 8 | #9,654 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 5 | #14,121 | |
| 2021 | 5 | #17,454 | 13 | #6,635 |
| 2020 | 7 | #13,355 | 13 | #6,580 |
| 2019 | 9 | #11,288 | 11 | #7,574 |
| 2018 | 9 | #11,351 | 13 | #6,664 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 6 | #12,086 | |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,788 | 8 | #9,580 |
Every recorded year (51)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13 | #8,895 | 26 | #4,066 |
| 2014 | under 5 | 17 | #5,459 | |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,937 | 13 | #6,561 |
| 2012 | 8 | #13,362 | 19 | #5,017 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,715 | 21 | #4,636 |
| 2010 | under 5 | 19 | #5,023 | |
| 2009 | 12 | #9,931 | 16 | #5,773 |
| 2008 | 22 | #6,331 | 18 | #5,223 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,484 | 14 | #6,233 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,860 | 23 | #4,201 |
| 2005 | 11 | #10,073 | 21 | #4,312 |
| 2004 | 16 | #7,359 | 7 | #9,831 |
| 2003 | 10 | #10,373 | 27 | #3,430 |
| 2002 | 17 | #6,668 | 21 | #4,025 |
| 2001 | 12 | #8,701 | 11 | #6,397 |
| 2000 | 21 | #5,473 | 15 | #5,010 |
| 1999 | 13 | #7,676 | 18 | #4,137 |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,220 | 15 | #4,619 |
| 1997 | 18 | #5,609 | 22 | #3,336 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,508 | 16 | #4,167 |
| 1995 | 13 | #7,004 | 18 | #3,675 |
| 1994 | 17 | #5,689 | 21 | #3,310 |
| 1993 | 21 | #4,809 | 19 | #3,484 |
| 1992 | 27 | #3,957 | 30 | #2,456 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,563 | 22 | #2,973 |
| 1990 | 15 | #6,112 | 22 | #2,942 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,701 | 13 | #4,245 |
| 1988 | 10 | #7,637 | 20 | #2,848 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,707 | 20 | #2,711 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,806 | 24 | #2,352 |
| 1985 | 15 | #5,062 | 20 | #2,592 |
| 1984 | 11 | #6,259 | 17 | #2,808 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,667 | 10 | #4,118 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,882 | 21 | #2,417 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,552 | 22 | #2,328 |
| 1980 | 7 | #9,026 | 16 | #2,948 |
| 1979 | 9 | #7,275 | 9 | #4,373 |
| 1978 | under 5 | 10 | #3,827 | |
| 1977 | under 5 | 9 | #4,133 | |
| 1976 | 6 | #9,173 | 9 | #3,985 |
| 1975 | under 5 | 5 | #6,256 |
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 Tien a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,320 Americans recorded as Tien, 38% are girls and 62% boys. In 2025 it went to 14 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Tien: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tien, and how old are they?
1,280 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,320 Americans ever recorded as Tien. The median Tien alive today is 28 years old; half are between 18 and 37.
The 2020 Census counted 8,223 people named Tien (3,555 women and girls, 4,668 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,227 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.7 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 74 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 512 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 484 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 213 |
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 Tien born?
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 186 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Texas | 12 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Tien is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tien is most over-represented in California: since 1975 it was given 1.1 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 Tien 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 9,584 babies since 1880, Tien is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 14 of their 203 babies (6.9%), again the second 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 Tien
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 Tien and names like it
- Compare Tien and TitanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sTien peaked in 1992.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tien since 1910.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Tien.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Tien alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with TMost given first.