Tilman
Masculine · “Til's man”
Tilman is German, and it is one of those names built from a pet form plus the plainest word in the language: Til, itself short for something longer, and man, meaning exactly that. The result is modest in a way that German naming often is.
How old is the name Tilman?
Tilman first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Tilman alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 400 people named Tilman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tilman most popular?
Tilman peaked in 1881, reaching #706 nationally. See the whole 1881 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dietrich to Tilman
The story of Tilman
The name belongs to one of the greatest carvers who ever worked in wood. Tilman Riemenschneider filled the churches of Franconia with limewood altarpieces — figures so finely cut that he could leave them unpainted, which almost nobody dared do — and he was also a city councillor and briefly the mayor. When the peasants rose against the princes, his city sided with the peasants; when the rising was crushed, he was arrested and tortured, and he carved little afterward. Germany also gave the same short front to its great trickster: Till Eulenspiegel, whose name reads as owl-mirror, a figure who takes every instruction literally and makes fools of everyone by obeying them exactly.
Meaningscholars disagree
Til's man — a pet form with man added
Til or Till is a German short form of Dietrich and of names built on the element that means people. Adding man to a short form was a standard way of making a full name in medieval Germany, and it produced Hartmann, Hoffmann and this one. What Til meant before it was shortened is the part that cannot be recovered with any confidence.
How the name formed
- Dietrich
- Till
- Tilman
Related forms: Tillmann · Tielman
Pronouncing Tilman
TIL-mun
Two syllables, stress at the front. German says both halves more evenly, with a clear a in the second: TIL-mahn.
Nicknames for Tilman
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192626 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #706reached in 1881
- Change vs 2020
- −12.5%7 in 2023, 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.
Tilman in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tillmann in German — spelling variant
- Tielman in Dutch — same name
Tilmans among us
people named Tilman 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
Tilman 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
- It is short, solid and completely unambiguous in English despite being German.
- It carries a real and remarkable namesake for anyone who looks him up.
- It works as a surname name without actually being anyone else's surname in the room.
- It will be heard as Tilden, Gilman or Tillman, all of which are close by.
- The ending reads as man, and he will be asked about it.
- The name is rare enough in America that he will be its only representative most places he goes.
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What they receive
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Tilman
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Tilmans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Tilman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tilman in 2025?
- Tilman is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Tilman with classmates?
- Tilman will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tilman? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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