Tawney
Feminine · “tawny”
Tawney is the color word tawny made into a name, a warm golden brown that English took from the tanners' trade. The spelling with -ey is also an English surname, carried by one of the most influential historians of the twentieth century.
How old is the name Tawney?
Tawney first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Tawney alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 600 people named Tawney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tawney most popular?
Tawney peaked in 1961, reaching #2299 nationally. See the whole 1961 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tanné to Tawney
The story of Tawney
The historian R.H. Tawney wrote Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, a book that argued over how Protestant thought and the market economy shaped each other, and taught generations of students in London to take economic history seriously. The color has a more cheerful history in the wine cellar: tawny port is aged for years in wooden casks, where slow contact with air turns the young red wine a golden brown and gives the style its name. Tawney as a girl's name takes that warm color and the surname's spelling together.
Meaning
tawny, a warm golden brown
From the English color word tawny, which came from French tanné, tanned. Tawney with -ey is also a surname.
How the name formed
- tanné
- tawny
- Tawney
Pronouncing Tawney
TAW-nee
Stress on the first syllable, said exactly like the color word.
Nicknames for Tawney
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
- 1948
- Most girls named
- 198843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2299reached in 1961
- Change vs 2004
- 0.0%8 in 2005, from 8
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.
Tawneys among us
people named Tawney 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
Tawney 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
- Its meaning is a real, warm English word.
- It is easy to say and spell once heard.
- It is rare, so she will seldom share it.
- People will spell it Tawny, and some will assume it was chosen for a hair color.
- It sounds close to the word tawdry to a few ears.
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Tawney
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tawneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Tawney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tawney in 2025?
- Tawney is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Tawney with classmates?
- Tawney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tawney? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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