Tavares
Masculine
Tavares is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,985 boys against 23 girls since 1880.
Tavares is a Portuguese surname that became an American first name, and the road between the two runs through music: a family band of five brothers from Massachusetts, all of them carrying the name, was widely heard in the nineteen-seventies, and American families began giving it to sons.
How old is the name Tavares?
Tavares first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Tavares alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 2,800 people named Tavares are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tavares most popular?
Tavares peaked in 1976, reaching #634 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 4,411 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Tavares
American naming has always taken surnames from public life, and the seventies added a new source: musicians. Tavares belonged to a family of Cape Verdean descent from New Bedford, and their records were played widely enough that the surname entered general American naming in the decade that followed, given to sons with no Portuguese or Cape Verdean connection at all. What such a name carries is a moment rather than a language, and a very precise one: it says which decade a family was listening in.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Portuguese surname is generally traced to a place name, and which place and what it meant are not settled. Nothing about the meaning carries into the American given name, which was taken for the sound and for the family that carried it.
Pronouncing Tavares
tuh-VAIR-eez
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Portuguese says tuh-VAH-rish, with a sh at the end, which is a noticeably different sound.
Nicknames for Tavares
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
- 1974
- Most boys named
- 1977170 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #634reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- +26.7%19 in 2025, from 15
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.
Tavares in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tavares in Portuguese — related form
Tavaress among us
people named Tavares are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Tavares
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 Werner test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tavares's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Werner climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Werner's path sketches the road Tavares is walking now.
Tavares 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
Tavares beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tavares in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Tav works as a short form and is genuinely uncommon.
- The three-syllable rhythm carries well when the name is called.
- It has a documented and datable point of entry into American naming.
- The Portuguese and American pronunciations differ noticeably at the end.
- It is a well-known surname, so it is sometimes read as a last name written first.
- It has no meaning of its own, only a source.
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Tavares
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tavaress are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Tavares are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tavares in 2025?
- Tavares ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tavares?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Tavares — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tavares with classmates?
- Tavares will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tavares
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tavares? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tavares and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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