Tatum
Masculine · “Tata's homestead”
Tatum is given to both — 13,225 boys and 28,649 girls since 1880. See Tatum as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Tatum began as an English place-name — a homestead belonging to a man called Tata — then became a surname, and only in the last half-century a first name. It is a tidy two beats in the mouth, TAY-tum, with the same bright opening vowel as Tate and Taylor and a soft landing that keeps it from sounding clipped. It arrived on American birth records within living memory and has been climbing ever since, for boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
How old is the name Tatum?
Tatum first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Tatum is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 13,000 people named Tatum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tatum most popular?
Tatum peaked in 2024, reaching #195 nationally. Today it ranks #202, 7 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Tatum appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Tata to Tatum
The story of Tatum
The name starts on the ground: a settlement in northern England named for whoever held it, recorded as Tatham and later smoothed to Tatum. Like thousands of English place-names, it became a family name, and it crossed the Atlantic that way — carried by families, not by parents choosing it for a baby. Its life as a first name is far shorter. The American actress Tatum O'Neal, who won an Academy Award as a child in the mid-1970s, is the reason the spelling started appearing on birth certificates at all, and it has been given to boys and girls in roughly equal measure ever since.
Meaning
Tata's homestead
From the Old English personal name Tata plus hām, "homestead" or "village" — the source of the Lancashire place name Tatham and the surname Tatum. What Tata itself meant is not established; it looks like an affectionate short name of the kind Old English used freely.
How the name formed
- Tata
- Tatham
- Tatum
Pronouncing Tatum
TAY-tum
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the sound away, so it survives a phone call and a roll call without correction.
Nicknames for Tatum
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 20241,841 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #195reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −5.7%1,736 in 2025, from 1,841
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.
Tatum in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Tatums among us
people named Tatum are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 984 born in 2025 was named Tatum
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 Rafael test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tatum's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rafael climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rafael's path sketches the road Tatum is walking now.
Tatum is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Tatum is headed
Tatum is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 63% more babies given the name than today.
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.
Tatum beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tatum in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads and spells itself: anyone who sees Tatum says it right the first time, and anyone who hears it writes it right.
- Works for a boy or a girl with no change in spelling or sound — the split is close to even in American records.
- Comes with Tate ready-made as a short form, itself a real name rather than a coinage.
- A documented English place-and-surname history behind it, rather than a recent invention.
- Because it is given almost equally to boys and girls, forms, teachers and strangers will guess wrong about half the time. That is easy to correct but it will happen for life.
- It is rising quickly. A Tatum starting school now will likely be the only one in the building, but the name may feel considerably more familiar by the time that child is grown.
- Tatum is a surname as well as a first name — there are well-known people who carry it as a last name — so it can occasionally read as a surname on a list or a form.
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What they receive
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Tatum
Masculine · #202 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tatums are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,000 people named Tatum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tatum in 2025?
- Tatum ranks #202 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,736 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tatum?
- About 1 in every 984 US boys born in 2025 was named Tatum — 1,736 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tatum with classmates?
- Tatum will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tatum
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Timothy#203 · Caden#201 · Kingston#204 · Andres#200 · Camden#205 · Rory#199 · Finn#206 · Jaziel#198
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tatum? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tatum and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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