Tennessee

Popularity Trends

The name Tennessee is the #6,446 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 1,296 recorded births since 1880. This represents the 16.7% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 16.7% of all names). For girls, it ranks #4,778 (16.4% percentile) for all time with 938 births since 1880. For boys, it ranks #4,228 (7.7% percentile) for all time with 358 births since 1995.

Tennessee has appeared in U.S. birth records since the beginning of our dataset in 1880 (since 1880 for girls and since 1995 for boys). Birth data for Tennessee is available in 86 out of the 144 years between 1880 and 2023 (86 years for girls and 25 years for boys). The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

The name Tennessee has been given predominantly to girls, with 72.4% of all recorded births being female. In 2023, 58.3% of babies named Tennessee were girls.

For girls, Tennessee reached its peak popularity in 1884, achieving the 3.8% percentile (ranked #229) with 102 births per million. The name was most common in 1884, with 102 births per million (ranked 3.8% percentile). Since reaching a high point in 2021, the popularity of this name for girls has been declining. Currently, Tennessee ranks #931 for girls (1.7% percentile) with 12 births per million, which is 11.8% of its peak share of births.

For boys, Tennessee reached its peak popularity in 2015, achieving the 2.5% percentile (ranked #882) with 14 births per million. The name was most common in 2017, with 14 births per million (ranked 2.5% percentile). Since reaching a high point around 2019, the popularity of this name for boys has been declining. Currently, Tennessee ranks #901 for boys (1.1% percentile) with 8 births per million, which is 57.9% of its peak share of births.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Tennessee".

1880 2023 18802023

Key Statistics

Total Births

938

Peak Births

Peak Year

1884

First Recorded

1880

Peak Percentile

3.8%

Current Percentile

1.7%

Peak Rank

#229

Current Rank

#931

Female statistics

Total Births

358

Peak Births

Peak Year

2015

First Recorded

1995

Peak Percentile

2.5%

Current Percentile

1.1%

Peak Rank

#882

Current Rank

#901

Male statistics

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Tennessee", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Tennessee.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Tennessee's popularity from 1880 to 2023 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Tennessee at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Tennessee range from Augustus at 81.6% correlation to Angus at 77.3% correlation, with an average correlation level of 78.5%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Lydia with 181.9K births (100% girls) and the least popular is Emeline with 3.5K births (100% girls).

Tennessee's share of births peaked at 101.8 births per million in 1884 (101.8 for girls in 1884 and 14.1 for boys in 2015). It reached its lowest point of 2.5 births per million (2% of peak) in 1993. In 2023, the most recent period with data, the name Tennessee had 20.2 births per million, 20% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Augustus

20.1k

81.55% (very strong)

Zora

9,679

79.59% (strong)

Abner

8,881

78.98% (strong)

Sadie

142k

78.66% (strong)

Emeline

3,471

78.59% (strong)

Nora

181.3k

78.41% (strong)

Smith

5,418

78.01% (strong)

August

66k

77.78% (strong)

Lydia

181.9k

77.71% (strong)

Helena

38.8k

77.65% (strong)

Lucie

7,358

77.31% (strong)

Angus

6,622

77.29% (strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Tennessee

Our model has identified 3 different pronunciations for the name Tennessee. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 62.5% confident that Tennessee is pronounced as teh-nuh-SEE, which has 3 syllables. The next most likely pronunciation is TEH-nuh-see, at 30.0% confidence, with 3 syllables.

teh-nuh-SEE

62.5%

TEH-nuh-see

30.0%

TA-nuh-see

7.5%

teh-nuh-SEE (3 syllables)

Verified

62.5% confidence

T EH2 N AH0 S IY1

TEH-nuh-see (3 syllables)

30.0% confidence

T EH1 N AH0 S IY0

TA-nuh-see (3 syllables)

7.5% confidence

T AE1 N AH0 S IY0

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Tennessee? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Tennessee. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Tennessee, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like T EH2 N AH0 S IY1) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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