Tavis
Masculine · “Aramaic te'oma”
Tavis is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,210 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
We do not know the apostle Thomas's name. Thomas is Aramaic te'oma, a twin, and the Gospel of John glosses it with the Greek Didymos, which also means twin. Both are descriptions. The man is recorded under a nickname in two languages, and whatever his parents called him is gone.
How old is the name Tavis?
Tavis first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Tavis alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 2,100 people named Tavis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tavis most popular?
Tavis peaked in 1977, reaching #1007 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 7,236 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From te'oma to Tavis
The story of Tavis
Gaelic spelling looks impenetrable to English readers because it marks a sound change English does not have. Consonants in Irish and Scottish Gaelic lenite, softening in certain grammatical positions, and the softening is written by adding an h. So m becomes mh and is pronounced v or w; b becomes bh, also v; s becomes sh and is pronounced h; t becomes th and is pronounced h as well. The system is regular and a reader of the language finds it obvious. A reader of English does not, which is why Gaelic names are so heavily respelled on their way into English: Tamhas becomes Tavis, Siobhan becomes Chevonne, Domhnall becomes Donald and Caoimhe becomes Keeva. Every one of those respellings is an accurate transcription of the sound and a complete loss of the grammar that produced it.
Meaning
Aramaic te'oma, a twin
Tavis is an English form of the Scottish Gaelic Tamhas, which is Thomas, from Aramaic te'oma, twin. The Gaelic mh is pronounced v, so Tamhas is said TAH-vas, and Tavis and Tavish are simply that pronunciation written in English letters. The name peaks in the United States in 1977.
How the name formed
- te'oma
- Thomas
- Tamhas
- Tavis
Related forms: Tamhas · Tavish · Thomas
Pronouncing Tavis
TAV-iss
Two syllables, stress on the first, short a. TAY-viss with a long a is also heard in American use. The Gaelic Tamhas is TAH-vas, closer to the first.
Nicknames for Tavis
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
- 1963
- Most boys named
- 199876 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1007reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- +50.0%9 in 2025, from 6
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.
Tavis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tamhas in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Tavish in English — spelling variant
- Thomas in English — related form
Taviss among us
people named Tavis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Tavis
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 Kennard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tavis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kennard climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kennard's path sketches the road Tavis is walking now.
Tavis 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
Tavis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tavis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The line back to Thomas is complete and documented.
- The spelling is phonetically transparent in English.
- Tav is a short, current-sounding clip.
- Travis is a near-homophone and vastly more common.
- Two vowel readings of the first syllable circulate.
- It is often assumed to be a surname.
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Tavis
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Taviss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Tavis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tavis in 2025?
- Tavis ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tavis?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Tavis — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tavis with classmates?
- Tavis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tavis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tavis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tavis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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