Humanverse

Tenia vs Tenzin

American parents have registered 2,906 Tenzins since 1880, against 981 Tenias. Tenzin is still ahead, with 99 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Tenia against Tenzin, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Tenia Tenzin

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 75 years in which either name was published, Tenia for 46 years and Tenzin for 29 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Tenia Tenzin
Total US births 9812,906
Most in one year 38141
Babies in 2025 under 599
Estimated living today 9202,900
Median age today 4012
Peak year 19982014
Best rank 3,222nd girls1,751st boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,230th
First recorded 19181992
Girls / boys 981 / 01,253 / 1,653

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Tenias alive today are over 40; half the Tenzins are over 12. That is 28 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Tenia and Tenzin.