Tai
Feminine
Tai is given to both — 1,815 girls and 3,122 boys since 1880. See Tai as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Thailand means land of the free. Tai is the name a whole family of peoples use for themselves, stretching from Assam through Thailand and Laos into southern China, and it is generally read as meaning free. The country renamed itself in 1939 to say so, and the Tai languages are named after it.
How old is the name Tai?
Tai first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Tai alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,800 people named Tai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tai most popular?
Tai peaked in 1980, reaching #939 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,921 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Tai
The Tai language family covers a very large area and its speakers are not all in Thailand. Thai, Lao, Shan in Myanmar, Zhuang in southern China and several smaller languages belong to it, and linguists place the family's origin in what is now Guangxi, with a migration south and west over the last two thousand years. Siam was renamed Thailand in 1939 as part of a nationalist program, and the choice was deliberate: it asserted a Tai identity for the state and, in the reading generally given, described the country as free, meaning never colonized. The name reverted to Siam in 1945 and back to Thailand in 1949. Whether tai originally meant free or simply person is argued by linguists, and the free reading may be a later interpretation rather than the original sense.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Tai has several unrelated possible sources. Chinese tai means great or supreme and appears in Taiji and Taipei. Vietnamese Tai means talent. The Tai peoples' self-designation, from which Thailand takes its name, is generally read as free or as simply person. As an American given name Tai is used for both sexes and peaks for girls in 1980; which source applies is not recoverable.
Pronouncing Tai
ty
One syllable, rhyming with high. Vietnamese and Chinese both carry tones on the syllable that English cannot reproduce, and American records strip the diacritics that would show them.
Nicknames for Tai
Limited
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1959
- Most girls named
- 1980159 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #939reached in 1980
- Change vs 2024
- −8.3%11 in 2025, from 12
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Tai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tai in Vietnamese — related form
- Tai in Chinese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Tais among us
people named Tai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Tai
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Regena test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Regena climbed just as high around 1948, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Regena's path sketches the road Tai is walking now.
Tai sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Tai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, one syllable, easy to write anywhere.
- It is used for both sexes.
- It works across several East and South-East Asian settings.
- The tone that distinguishes the words is not recorded in American systems.
- Several unrelated languages produce the same spelling.
- It is very short and will be assumed to be an initial.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Tai
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Tai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tai in 2025?
- Tai ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tai?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Tai — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tai with classmates?
- Tai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tai? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tai and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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