Thai
Masculine · “Sino-Vietnamese thai”
Thai is given to both — 1,214 boys and 212 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Vietnamese names have three parts and the middle one used to announce the sex: Van for a man, Thi for a woman. And roughly two in five Vietnamese people share one surname, Nguyen.
How old is the name Thai?
Thai first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Thai alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 1,200 people named Thai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thai most popular?
Thai peaked in 1983, reaching #1516 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 9,179 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Thai
Vietnamese naming reverses the Western order, putting the family name first, the middle name second and the given name last, and the given name is the one used in address, even for officials and elders. The middle element was traditionally sex-marking, Van for men and Thi for women, though this has faded. The surname stock is famously narrow: Nguyen alone covers something close to two in five Vietnamese people, a consequence of dynastic changes in which whole populations adopted the ruling family's name, and a handful of others cover most of the rest. That concentration makes the given name carry nearly all the identifying work, which is the opposite of the English situation. The American peak in 1983 follows the arrival of Vietnamese refugees after 1975.
Meaningscholars disagree
Sino-Vietnamese thai, great
Thai as a Vietnamese given name is generally from the Sino-Vietnamese element meaning great or grand. The same spelling names the Thai people and language, which is unrelated. Vietnamese diacritics distinguish several different words written Thai in English. The American peak is 1983.
Pronouncing Thai
TIE
One syllable. Vietnamese carries tones that English does not reproduce, so several distinct names collapse into this spelling.
Nicknames for Thai
Limited
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 200342 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1516reached in 1983
- Change vs 2024
- −14.3%6 in 2025, from 7
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.
Thai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thai in Vietnamese — same name
Thais among us
people named Thai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Thai
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 Thayne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Thai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Thayne climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Thayne's path sketches the road Thai is walking now.
Thai 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
Thai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Thai 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 four letters.
- It is readable to English speakers without adjustment.
- It works as a first name and a middle name equally.
- English strips the tone, merging several Vietnamese names into one.
- It is also the name of an unrelated nationality and language.
- The 1983 peak dates its American use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Thai
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Thais 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 Thai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thai in 2025?
- Thai ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Thai?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Thai — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Thai with classmates?
- Thai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Thai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thai? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Thai and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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