Tully
Masculine
Tully is given to both — 1,045 boys and 199 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Tully was, for four hundred years, how English-speaking people referred to Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero's middle name anglicized as Tully, and every educated English reader from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century knew him by it. It is also, separately, an Irish surname. Its American peak is 1900.
How old is the name Tully?
Tully first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Tully alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 800 people named Tully are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tully most popular?
Tully peaked in 1900, reaching #1162 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,981 places below that high. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Tullius to Tully
The story of Tully
Cicero was the model of Latin prose for the whole of European education, and English writers called him Tully as a matter of course — Shakespeare does, Milton does, Hume does. The habit only faded in the nineteenth century as classical education changed. Separately, the O Taithligh and Mac an Tuile families of Ireland anglicized their names as Tully, and Irish emigration brought the surname to America in numbers. The given name draws on both, and the 1900 peak sits with the general American surname-name fashion of that period.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Two unrelated sources, neither with a settled meaning. Tullius was a Roman gens name and, like most of them, is probably Etruscan and therefore unrecoverable. The Irish surname O Taithligh is generally connected to taithleach, 'quiet, peaceable', and Mac an Tuile to tuile, 'flood'; both anglicized as Tully and the two cannot be separated by spelling. So the name has three possible ancestries and no clear meaning from any of them.
How the name formed
- Tullius
- Tully
- Tully
Related forms: O Taithligh · Tullius
Pronouncing Tully
TUL-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the short u of dull. There is no competing saying, and the spelling gives English readers no difficulty.
Nicknames for Tully
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 200424 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1162reached in 1900
- Change vs 2023
- −22.2%14 in 2025, from 18
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.
Tully in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Taithligh in Irish — related form
- Tullius in Latin — related form
Tullys among us
people named Tully are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Tully
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Tully 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
Tully beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tully in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, warm and immediately spellable after one hearing.
- It carries a genuine connection to the greatest orator of the Roman Republic.
- It has both Irish and Roman ancestries available.
- Neither possible ancestry supplies a settled meaning.
- It reads as a surname or a nickname rather than a formal first name.
- Its American curve is turn-of-the-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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Tully
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tullys 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 Tully are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tully in 2025?
- Tully ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tully?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Tully — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tully with classmates?
- Tully will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tully
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tully? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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