Timm
Masculine · “honoring God”
Timm is a real German family name of the north German coast as well as an American respelling of a familiar form, so a family carrying it may have inherited it rather than invented it. A proverb about time makes more sense once you know what its second word used to mean.
How old is the name Timm?
Timm first appears in US birth records in 1941 — 84 years ago. The typical Timm alive today was born around 1959, making them about 66 years old. About 500 people named Timm are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Timm most popular?
Timm peaked in 1959, reaching #1212 nationally. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Timotheos to Timm
The story of Timm
Time and tide wait for no man is a tautology. Tide is the Old English tid, meaning a time or a season, which survives in Yuletide, Eastertide, Whitsuntide and in betide and tidings; the sea sense is a later specialization, from the regular times of the water's rising. The proverb is recorded long before the nautical meaning took over, so the original is saying time and time wait for nobody — a doubling for emphasis, of the kind English likes. Once tide had come to mean the sea, the saying acquired a picture that was never in it, and most people now hear a boat leaving a harbor. The tautology is invisible, which is the usual fate of these things.
Meaning
honoring God
The formal name behind it joins two Greek elements, one about honor and one the word for God. It belongs to a companion of Paul and two letters in the New Testament are addressed to him.
How the name formed
- Timotheos
- Timothy
- Timm
Related forms: Timm
Pronouncing Timm
TIM
One syllable. The doubled m changes nothing in English; in German it marks the vowel before it as short, which is a rule English does not apply at the end of a word.
Nicknames for Timm
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
- 1941
- Most boys named
- 195941 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1212reached in 1959
- Change vs 1980
- 0.0%5 in 1982, from 5
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.
Timm in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Timm in German — same name
Timms among us
people named Timm 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
Timm 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
- One syllable is quick, clear and hard to mishear across a room.
- It is understood instantly and needs no introduction anywhere.
- The German spelling is genuine rather than invented.
- Tim is the standard spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- The doubled letter is inaudible in English, so the spelling must be given aloud.
- It reads as a short form even when it is the registered name.
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What they receive
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Timm
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Timms are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Timm are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Timm in 2025?
- Timm is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Timm with classmates?
- Timm 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 Timm? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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