Tamala
Feminine · “date palm”
Tamala is Tamara with the r replaced by an l. That swap is one of the commonest things that happens to names in speech — the two sounds are made in almost the same place in the mouth — and it happens often enough to have a name among linguists and rarely enough to be worth noticing here.
How old is the name Tamala?
Tamala first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Tamala alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 2,700 people named Tamala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tamala most popular?
Tamala peaked in 1971, reaching #798 nationally. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Tamara to Tamala
The story of Tamala
The r and the l are what phoneticians call liquids, and languages swap them constantly: Latin peregrinus became English pilgrim, and English speakers do it to unfamiliar names without noticing. In an American record full of names built from free parts, a swap like this can also be deliberate — a family wanting something close to a name they liked but not identical to it. Both explanations are live here. Tamala appears at the same time as Tamela and Tamera, and the three of them differ only in one consonant and one unstressed vowel between them.
Meaningscholars disagree
date palm
If the name descends from Tamara it carries the Hebrew word for a palm tree. If it was built independently on the productive front syllable, which some of them were, it carries nothing.
How the name formed
- Tamara
- Tamala
Pronouncing Tamala
tuh-MAH-luh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Some families front-weight it, TAM-uh-luh, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Tamala
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 1971176 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #798reached in 1971
- Change vs 2001
- −50.0%5 in 2005, from 10
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.
Tamalas among us
people named Tamala 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
Tamala 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
- Every sound in it is easy for an English speaker and the spelling follows the sound.
- The stress in the middle gives it a lift most English names of its length do not have.
- It is genuinely uncommon while being entirely readable.
- Tamara, Tamela and Tamala are near neighbors and will be confused constantly.
- The stress is unsettled, so the name will be introduced two ways.
- It reads clearly as a name of the middle of the twentieth century.
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Tamala
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tamalas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Tamala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tamala in 2025?
- Tamala is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Tamala with classmates?
- Tamala will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tamala? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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