Tinsley
Tinsley was given to 213 girls in 2025, #1,112 among girls’ names; 4,747 Americans have been recorded with it since 1919 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,670 Americans named Tinsley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tinsley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tinsley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tinsley is “a female given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “woodland clearing, glade” (lēah).
From the unattested Old English personal name *Tynni + -s- + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tinsley?
#1,112 among girls’ names, 2025
Tinsley fell from #1,010 in 2015 to #1,112 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.15 to 0.13 per 1,000.
388 babies in 2020, the peak
Tinsley peaked in 2020, when 388 girls were given it, #721 among girls’ names. The 213 births of 2025 are 55% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 213 | #1,112 | 0.13 |
| 2024 | 166 | #1,373 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 254 | #1,004 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 300 | #916 | 0.18 |
| 2021 | 301 | #900 | 0.18 |
| 2020 | 388 | #721 | 0.24 |
| 2019 | 341 | #807 | 0.20 |
| 2018 | 353 | #774 | 0.21 |
| 2017 | 324 | #842 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 280 | #966 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 266 | #1,010 | 0.15 |
| 2014 | 221 | #1,138 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 224 | #1,098 | 0.13 |
| 2012 | 207 | #1,194 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 232 | #1,065 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 200 | #1,217 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 60 | #2,933 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 65 | #2,800 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 31 | #4,797 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 27 | #5,219 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 25 | #5,245 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 17 | #7,054 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 15 | #7,548 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 28 | #4,487 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 8 | #11,971 | under 0.01 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,539 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 10 | #9,416 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 5 | #16,415 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,601 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,704 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 11 | #8,037 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,962 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 9 | #9,488 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 6 | #13,222 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #11,686 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,472 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,231 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,948 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #12,188 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tinsley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,747 Americans recorded as Tinsley, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 213 girls; SSA lists no boys 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 Tinsley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tinsley, and how old are they?
4,670 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 4,747 Americans ever recorded as Tinsley. The median Tinsley alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 2,954 people named Tinsley (2,778 women and girls, 176 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,163 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 11 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 9 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 76 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 953 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,610 |
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 Tinsley born?
The states with the most babies named Tinsley are Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, with 31% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 22 | #1,220 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 18 | #609 | 1.9× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #898 | 1.2× |
| Missouri | 11 | #554 | 1.5× |
| Arkansas | 10 | #334 | 2.1× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,538 | 0.9× |
| Alabama | 8 | #630 | 2.0× |
| Virginia | 8 | #927 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,108 | 0.7× |
| Oklahoma | 8 | #542 | 1.6× |
Where Tinsley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tinsley is most over-represented in Arkansas: since 1919 it was given 2.1 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 girls’ 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 Tinsley 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 5,383 babies since 1880, Tinsley is the most given (88% of them). In 2025 it was given to 213 of their 237 babies (90%), 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 Tinsley
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 Tinsley and names like it
- Compare Tinsley and TinsleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sTinsley peaked in 2020.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tinsley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Tinsley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Tinsley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Tinsley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.