boy's name
Tanner
TAN-er
- Origin English
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 2
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 108,159
the United States
#475
2025 births
Tanner names one of the most unpleasant medieval trades — tanneries used urine and dog feces to cure hides, and were forced to the downwind edge of every town by law as well as by smell.
- Tanner is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1998, when 4,827 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,847 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1913.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Tanner over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 21 |
| 1920s | 22 |
| 1930s | 7 |
| 1950s | 8 |
| 1960s | 53 |
| 1970s | 828 |
| 1980s | 5,776 |
| 1990s | 38,267 |
| 2000s | 32,409 |
| 2010s | 17,745 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,030 |
What Tanner means
Tanner means one who tans hides, a leather maker. The occupational surname names the trade directly rather than describing the person who carried it. The sense passes into the modern name unchanged.
Where Tanner comes from
Tanner is an English occupational surname from tannian, to tan hides, ultimately from a word for oak bark, whose tannins did the curing. The trade was genuinely noxious: hides were soaked in urine, stripped of hair, then worked with dung to soften them, so tanneries were pushed to the downwind edge of settlements and often barred from the town proper. That is why so many English towns have a Tanner Street on the outskirts and by a river.
Tanner in use
Tanner peaked in the United States in 1998, when 4,827 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It charts in three of the seven markets we track — 404th in Canada, 475th in the United States on 684 births and 4654th in England and Wales — across 108,159 lifetime births. Our records carry it from 1880, though almost all volume falls after 1980.
How popular is Tanner?
In 2025, Tanner was given to 684 babies in the United States, ranking #475 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Tanner is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Tanner
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Tanner also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Tanner over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Tanner in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Tannor
Sibling names for Tanner
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Tanner — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Tanner
What does the name Tanner mean?
One who tans hides — a leather maker.
Why were tanneries pushed out of towns?
The process used urine and dung, so they were placed downwind on the outskirts, often by a river.
Where does the word tan come from?
From a word for oak bark, whose tannins did the curing.
How popular is Tanner?
475th in the United States, down from a 1998 peak of 4,827 births.
Is Tanner a girl's or a boy's name?
Tanner is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Tanner?
Tanner has 2 syllables.
Is Tanner a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Tanner currently ranks #404 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.