Tamya
Feminine · “date palm”
In 2005 a seed from Masada was planted and it grew. It had been sitting in a jar in the desert for about two thousand years, it was a Judean date palm — a variety that had been extinct since the Middle Ages — and it produced a tree. Tamar is the Hebrew word for that palm.
How old is the name Tamya?
Tamya first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Tamya alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 2,800 people named Tamya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tamya most popular?
Tamya peaked in 2003, reaching #909 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,023 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tamar to Tamya
The story of Tamya
The seeds were excavated at Masada in the 1960s, sat in a drawer for forty years, and were planted almost as an experiment. One germinated. The tree, which turned out to be male, was later used to pollinate other revived seedlings, and the variety the Romans wrote about as the great crop of Judaea is growing again. The word itself is all over the Hebrew Bible, as a plant and as a name: three separate women called Tamar appear in the text, and the palm is used as an image of uprightness. What made it valuable was practical — a date palm bears for over a century and asks very little, which in a desert is the whole argument.
Meaningscholars disagree
date palm
The Tam- names reach back to Hebrew tamar, a date palm, through Tamara. Tamya may descend from that or be a modern American compound with the -ya ending; neither has been shown. The Hebrew word is entirely ordinary and still current in Israel.
How the name formed
- tamar
- Tamara
- Tamya
Related forms: Tamar
Pronouncing Tamya
TAHM-yah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the y as a consonant. tuh-MY-uh, with three and the weight in the middle, is also used and the spelling supports both.
Nicknames for Tamya
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
- 1959
- Most girls named
- 2003262 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #909reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%7 in 2025, from 6
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.
Tamya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tamar in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Michigan.
Tamyas among us
people named Tamya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Tamya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tamya
- #11932
- Tamya on the 2025 chart
- #875
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tamya went to 7 girls in 2025, but Tamia, Tamiyah and Tamiya are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 85, which makes it the 875th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,057 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 18,909 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Tamya 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 Towanda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tamya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Towanda climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Towanda's path sketches the road Tamya is walking now.
Tamya 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
Tamya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tamya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The word behind it names a real tree with a documented and remarkable history.
- Three short forms, two of which are full names in their own right.
- Every sound in it is ordinary English.
- The syllable count is unsettled between two and three.
- Tamia, Tamiya and Tamya are all in use, so the spelling will be given.
- The link to the Hebrew word is plausible rather than demonstrated.
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What they receive
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Tamya
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tamyas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Tamya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tamya?
- Tamya is one of 4 recorded spellings. Tamia is the more common one — 57 births in 2025 against 7 for Tamya.
- How popular is the name Tamya in 2025?
- Tamya ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tamya?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Tamya — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tamya with classmates?
- Tamya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tamya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tamya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tamya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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