Topanga
Feminine
Topanga is a canyon and a place name in the Los Angeles hills, and the word comes from the Tongva people who lived there first.
How old is the name Topanga?
Topanga first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Topanga alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 800 people named Topanga are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Topanga most popular?
Topanga peaked in 1998, reaching #2756 nationally. Today it ranks #4661, 1,905 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Topanga
Tongva was spoken across the Los Angeles basin and the offshore islands before the missions, and it survives now chiefly in place names — Topanga, Cahuenga, Cucamonga, Azusa — and in a revival effort by descendants. Topanga Canyon became a byword for a certain kind of California life in the 1960s. The name reached American babies through a character on Boy Meets World in the 1990s.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The name is from Tongva, the language of the people indigenous to the Los Angeles basin; readings such as a place above have been offered but the language was severely disrupted and the meaning is not securely documented.
Pronouncing Topanga
toh-PANG-guh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Topanga
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 199848 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2756reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −14.7%29 in 2025, from 34
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.
Topanga in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Topaa'nga in Tongva — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Topangas among us
people named Topanga are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was named Topanga
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 Jimi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Topanga's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jimi climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jimi's path sketches the road Topanga is walking now.
Topanga 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 Topanga is headed
Topanga 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.
Topanga beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Topanga in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real place with a genuinely deep and specific history behind it.
- Every vowel is sounded, so it reads correctly at first sight.
- Seven letters and three syllables, manageable to write.
- It is a Tongva word, and descendant communities have views about its use.
- Its American use traces almost entirely to one 1990s television character.
- The meaning is not securely documented.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Topanga
Feminine · #4661 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Topangas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Topanga are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Topanga in 2025?
- Topanga ranks #4661 among US girl names in 2025, with 29 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Topanga?
- About 1 in every 55,423 US girls born in 2025 was named Topanga — 29 in all.
- Will my child share the name Topanga with classmates?
- Topanga will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Topanga
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ellenor#4661 · Roselie#4661 · Marni#4661 · Menucha#4661 · Infinity#4661 · Lilya#4661 · Railyn#4661 · Zada#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Topanga? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Topanga and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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