Tani
Feminine · “valley”
Tani is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,004 girls against 10 boys since 1880.
Most Japanese people had no surname until 1875. A law required everyone to register one, and families chose from what was outside the door — a rice field, a mountain foot, a river mouth, a valley. Tani is valley, and it is one of the commonest elements in the whole system.
How old is the name Tani?
Tani first appears in US birth records in 1942 — 83 years ago. The typical Tani alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 900 people named Tani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tani most popular?
Tani peaked in 1963, reaching #1417 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 10,515 places below that high. See the whole 1963 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Tani
The Meiji government required commoners to take family names in 1875, and something like eighty per cent of Japanese surnames date from that decade — which is why they are so overwhelmingly geographic. Tanaka is the middle of the rice field. Yamamoto is the foot of the mountain. Kawaguchi is the river mouth. Ishikawa is the stone river. Nakamura is the middle village. People named themselves after the ground they were standing on, all at once, and the result is a national surname stock that reads like a survey map. Tani, a valley, is one of the pieces that turns up most often, on its own and inside longer names.
Meaningscholars disagree
valley
Japanese tani, a valley, written with a single character and appearing in a great many surnames. Tani is also a short form of Tania or Tatiana in Western use, and a Yoruba name in its own right. The three are unrelated.
Pronouncing Tani
TAH-nee
Two syllables, said evenly in Japanese with no English-style stress. Americans put the weight on the first. TAN-ee, with a short a, is used by families who take it from Tania.
Nicknames for Tani
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
- 1942
- Most girls named
- 196362 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1417reached in 1963
- Change vs 2022
- +40.0%7 in 2025, from 5
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.
Tani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tani in Japanese — transliteration
- Tanya in Russian — related form
Tanis among us
people named Tani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Tani
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 Annita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Annita climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Annita's path sketches the road Tani is walking now.
Tani 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
Tani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables, easy in Japanese, English and Yoruba alike.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- One of its meanings is concrete and can be pointed at.
- In Japan it is a surname element rather than a given name, which matters in Japanese company.
- The first vowel is said two ways depending on which parent name a family has in mind.
- The few boys given this spelling will be read as girls on paper.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Tani
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Tani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tani in 2025?
- Tani ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tani?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Tani — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tani with classmates?
- Tani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tani
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 Tani? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tani and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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