Tennessee

Where Tennessee comes from

From Cherokee ᏔᎾᏏ (tanasi), believed to mean “winding river”.
— Wiktionary's entry for Tennessee
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1844
    Tennessee Claflin born
    American suffragist
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #836 among girls — 5 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1884
    Peak, #556
    14 babies named Tennessee — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1886
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  5. 1911
    Tennessee Williams born
    American playwright
  6. 2016
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name.
  • A female given name.
Namesakes
  • Tennessee Williams · American playwright, 1911–1983
  • Tennessee Claflin · American suffragist, 1844–1923
  • Tennessee Thomas · drummer, born 1984

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.