Tex
Masculine · “friends”
Tex is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,120 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Tex is an American nickname that became a name: the man from Texas, said by everyone else. Behind the state's name is a Caddo word that the Spanish took for a greeting.
How old is the name Tex?
Tex first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Tex alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 1,200 people named Tex are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tex most popular?
Tex peaked in 1940, reaching #751 nationally. Today it ranks #3450, 2,699 places below that high. See the whole 1940 chart.
Where it comes from
From taysha to Tex
The story of Tex
Spanish missionaries in the seventeenth century met Caddo-speaking peoples who used a word for allies, and the Spanish took it as the name of the country. Tex as a personal name is an American nickname of the kind the country produces easily — Tex, Slim, Dutch, Red — given to a man for where he came from and then registered as his name. It was in real use in the middle of the twentieth century.
Meaning
friends, allies
Texas comes from the Caddo word taysha, meaning friends or allies, which Spanish explorers heard as a name and wrote as Tejas; the state motto, friendship, records the original sense.
How the name formed
- taysha
- Tejas
- Texas
- Tex
Related forms: Tejas
Pronouncing Tex
TEKS
One syllable. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Tex
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
- 1890
- Most boys named
- 193864 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #751reached in 1940
- Change vs 2023
- −13.2%33 in 2025, from 38
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.
Tex in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tejas in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Texs among us
people named Tex are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 51,760 born in 2025 was named Tex
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 Clive test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tex's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clive climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clive's path sketches the road Tex is walking now.
Tex 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
Where Tex is headed
Tex should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Tex beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tex in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and three letters — about as short as a name can be.
- A settled meaning with a genuinely good history behind the state's name.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- It names a state, and strangers will ask about a connection that may not exist.
- It reads as a nickname to most people, which may matter on a formal document.
- It is strongly associated with a particular era of American life.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Tex to the vote.
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What they receive
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Tex
Masculine · #3450 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Texs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Tex are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tex in 2025?
- Tex ranks #3450 among US boy names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tex?
- About 1 in every 51,760 US boys born in 2025 was named Tex — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tex with classmates?
- Tex will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tex
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sabastian#3450 · Luc#3450 · Deshaun#3450 · Trayvon#3450 · Blade#3450 · Oz#3450 · Josiyah#3450 · Fausto#3450
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tex? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tex and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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