Talmage
Masculine
Two different men called Talmage explain this name, and they explain different parts of it. One put the word in front of the whole country. The other is the reason it is concentrated, to this day, in a single state.
How old is the name Talmage?
Talmage first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Talmage alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 1,000 people named Talmage are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Talmage most popular?
Talmage peaked in 1895, reaching #529 nationally. See the whole 1895 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Talmage to Talmage
The story of Talmage
T. De Witt Talmage preached in Brooklyn and was, for a stretch of the late nineteenth century, probably the most widely read preacher alive. His sermons were syndicated: printed each week in thousands of newspapers across America and abroad, so that a farmer in Kansas read on Monday what a congregation in Brooklyn had heard on Sunday. A surname carried into that many households every week does not stay a surname for long, and American parents began using it. The other Talmage was James E. Talmage, a British-born geologist who became an apostle of the Latter-day Saint church and wrote two books that remain standard reading in it. His influence was narrower and deeper, and it is why the name still clusters in Utah rather than spreading evenly.
Meaningscholars disagree
possibly a maker of bags or knapsacks
The surname is English and its source is not agreed. A derivation from an Old French word for a bag or satchel is the usual suggestion, making it an occupational name, but it is offered with caution and other proposals exist.
How the name formed
- Talmage
- Tallmadge
Pronouncing Talmage
TAL-mij
Two syllables with the stress at the front and a soft g at the end. The spelling gives no trouble, though strangers sometimes try a hard g first.
Nicknames for Talmage
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192252 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #529reached in 1895
- Change vs 2021
- −23.5%13 in 2024, from 17
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.
Talmage in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Utah.
Talmages among us
people named Talmage are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Talmage sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Tal is a short form that sounds entirely modern despite the age of the name.
- It belongs to the surname-name tradition without being one of the common ones.
- It is genuinely distinctive while being easy to say and to spell aloud.
- It is strongly associated with one religious tradition in one part of the country.
- The generation that carried it in America is now very old.
- The origin of the surname is not settled and cannot honestly be given as fact.
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Talmage
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Talmages are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Talmage are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Talmage in 2025?
- Talmage is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Talmage with classmates?
- Talmage will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Talmage? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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