Tanner
Feminine · “one who tans hides”
Tanner is given to boys far more often — 97,625 boys against 2,541 girls since 1880. See Tanner as a boy name
Tanner is an English occupational surname for a man who turned hides into leather — a trade so foul-smelling that tanneries were kept downwind and downstream of every medieval town.
How old is the name Tanner?
Tanner first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Tanner alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 2,500 people named Tanner are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tanner most popular?
Tanner peaked in 1998, reaching #1392 nationally. Today it ranks #3517, 2,125 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tannere to Tanner
The story of Tanner
Tanning used oak bark, urine and lime, and the process took a year and smelled appalling — which is why tanners' quarters sat at the edge of towns and why the surname is common wherever leather was worked. Families took it in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It moved into American given names in the 1980s for boys and, in smaller numbers, for girls, alongside Sawyer, Cooper and Mason.
Meaning
one who tans hides
From Old English tannere, built on a word for oak bark, which supplied the tannin used to cure leather; the same root gives the modern word tannin and the verb to tan.
How the name formed
- tannere
- Tanner
Related forms: Gerber · Tanneur
Pronouncing Tanner
TAN-er
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Tanner
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 1998123 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1392reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −15.7%43 in 2025, from 51
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.
Tanner in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gerber in German — related form
- Tanneur in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Louisiana, California.
Tanners among us
people named Tanner are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was named Tanner
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 Marchelle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tanner's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marchelle climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marchelle's path sketches the road Tanner is walking now.
Tanner 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
Where Tanner is headed
Tanner should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Tanner beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tanner in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled occupational meaning with a genuinely vivid trade behind it.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Six letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- It is read as a boy's name by default, and she will correct that often.
- The word also means a person who suntans, which will be joked about.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Tanner to the vote.
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What they receive
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Tanner
Feminine · #3517 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tanners are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Tanner are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tanner in 2025?
- Tanner ranks #3517 among US girl names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tanner?
- About 1 in every 37,378 US girls born in 2025 was named Tanner — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tanner with classmates?
- Tanner will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tanner
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maida#3517 · Amada#3517 · Afton#3517 · Allura#3517 · Jaina#3517 · Hallee#3517 · Katara#3517 · Joella#3517
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tanner? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tanner and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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