Tarryn
Feminine
Tarryn is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 785 girls against 15 boys since 1880.
Tarryn is recorded for boys and girls alike and is one of several spellings of a name that was invented in the twentieth century. Its opening syllable is also a genuine English word, though only in one corner of the country.
How old is the name Tarryn?
Tarryn first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Tarryn alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 800 people named Tarryn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tarryn most popular?
Tarryn peaked in 1989, reaching #3045 nationally. See the whole 1989 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Tarryn
A tarn is a small mountain lake, usually in a hollow scooped out by a glacier, and the word is Old Norse. It survives in the north of England and in Scotland, where the Vikings settled thickly enough to leave their vocabulary in the landscape, and it is essentially unknown as a living word anywhere else in the English-speaking world. The same settlement gave northern England beck for a stream, fell for a hill, gill for a ravine and thwaite for a clearing, so that a walker in the Lake District is reading Norse off the signposts all day without noticing. Tarryn has no documented connection to the word. But it is the kind of syllable that has been doing work in English for a thousand years in one part of the country and nowhere else.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name it respells was coined rather than inherited, so there is no older meaning to recover. This particular arrangement of letters is not documented either, and no reason for the doubled r has been recorded.
Pronouncing Tarryn
TARE-in
Two syllables with the stress in front. The doubled r makes no audible difference at all.
Nicknames for Tarryn
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 198935 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3045reached in 1989
- Change vs 2020
- −53.8%6 in 2021, from 13
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.
Tarryns among us
people named Tarryn 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
Tarryn 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
- The sound is thoroughly familiar, so it is never a puzzle to say.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it does not force a reading on anyone.
- Two syllables with a strong front stress carry well across a room.
- Taryn and Taryne are both commoner, so this spelling will be corrected regularly.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
- Neither altered letter can be heard, so the spelling has to be given aloud every time.
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Tarryn
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tarryns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Tarryn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tarryn in 2025?
- Tarryn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Tarryn with classmates?
- Tarryn 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 Tarryn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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