Tanzania
Feminine
Tanzania is a country name given to American daughters from the late nineteen-sixties, and the country itself is younger than a great many of the people carrying it. The name was assembled in nineteen sixty-four and, by the usual account, chosen from entries to a competition.
How old is the name Tanzania?
Tanzania first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Tanzania alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 700 people named Tanzania are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tanzania most popular?
Tanzania peaked in 1992, reaching #3036 nationally. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Tanzania
Tanganyika and Zanzibar united in April nineteen sixty-four, and the new state needed a name. The usual account is that the government invited suggestions and that the winning entry combined the first syllables of both parts with an -ia ending, giving Tanzania, and the winner received a modest prize. The mainland's own name had come from the lake and from a German colonial coinage; the island's went back to a medieval Arabic term for the coast of the Black people. So the new name folded together a lake, a German administrative label and an Arabic geographical one, and did it in four syllables. Very few countries can be dated to a month. American families began using it as a girl's name within a few years, which is a pattern that repeats with newly independent African states.
Meaning
the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar
A portmanteau built when the two states merged: the first syllables of each, with an ending added to make it work as a country name. It is one of very few national names with a documented date of invention.
Pronouncing Tanzania
tan-zuh-NEE-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. East African English says it with the weight further forward, closer to tan-ZAN-ya, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Tanzania
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 199238 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3036reached in 1992
- Change vs 2007
- −44.4%5 in 2008, from 9
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.
Tanzanias among us
people named Tanzania 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
Tanzania 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
- Three short forms come out of it and none sounds like the others.
- The name has a documented date and a documented construction, which few do.
- The stress falls where an English reader expects it.
- It is a country, and everyone who hears it will think of the country first.
- Four syllables is long for forms designed around shorter names.
- Nothing records any family connection to the place.
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What they receive
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Tanzania
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tanzanias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Tanzania are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tanzania in 2025?
- Tanzania is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Tanzania with classmates?
- Tanzania 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 Tanzania? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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