Tallen
Masculine
A talon is a heel. The English word for a bird's claw comes from Latin talus, the ankle bone, through French talon, which still means heel and nothing else. The claw sense is an English development, and the original is the same body part that gives Jacob his name.
How old is the name Tallen?
Tallen first appears in US birth records in 1987 — 38 years ago. The typical Tallen alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 600 people named Tallen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tallen most popular?
Tallen peaked in 2006, reaching #2542 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 6,368 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From talus to Tallen
Our story of Tallen
Talon is worth following because the English meaning is a departure and the original is still visible in the anatomy. Latin talus is the ankle bone, the one that carries the weight of the body onto the foot; the astragalus of a sheep, the same bone, was the ancient dice, which is why Latin tali means dice and why a Roman gambler was throwing ankles. French talon is a heel, on a foot or on a shoe, and it is still the ordinary word. English borrowed it in the fourteenth century meaning the heel of a bird's foot, and then let it slide forward to cover the whole claw, which is not what any other language did with it. So a name built on Talon reaches for a bird of prey and lands, historically, on a heel bone and a set of dice.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Tallen has no inherited etymology. It is most likely a blend or respelling of Talon and Allen. Talon is genuine and comes from Latin talus, the ankle or heel bone, through Old French talon, a heel; the bird-of-prey sense is an English extension. Allen is an English form of Alan, whose own meaning is genuinely unknown. The peak is 2006.
How the name formed
- talus
- talon
- Tallen
Related forms: Talon · Talen
Pronouncing Tallen
TAL-un
Two syllables, stress on the first. Tallen, Talen and Talon are homophones in American speech, because the second syllable is unstressed.
Nicknames for Tallen
Moderate
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
- 1987
- Most boys named
- 200647 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2542reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%8 in 2025, from 14
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.
Tallen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Talon in English — related form
- Talen in English — spelling variant
Tallens among us
people named Tallen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Tallen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tallen
- #8910
- Tallen on the 2025 chart
- #898
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tallen went to 8 boys in 2025, but Talen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 30, which makes it the 898th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,012 places above the chart.
- Talen22
- Tallen8
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 213,510 for Tallen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Carold test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tallen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carold climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carold's path sketches the road Tallen is walking now.
Tallen 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
Tallen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tallen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Tal and Len both work as short forms.
- The pronunciation is obvious from the spelling.
- Two syllables with a firm first-syllable stress.
- Talon and Talen are both commoner spellings.
- It has no meaning of its own in any language.
- The doubled l is not doing phonetic work.
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Tallen
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tallens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Tallen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tallen?
- Tallen is one of 2 recorded spellings. Talen is the more common one — 22 births in 2025 against 8 for Tallen.
- How popular is the name Tallen in 2025?
- Tallen ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tallen?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Tallen — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tallen with classmates?
- Tallen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tallen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tallen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tallen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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