Tate
Tate is a unisex name of English origin meaning “cheerful, pleasant.” It ranked #194 in the United States in 2025. An Old Norse and Old English surname meaning cheerful.
how do you pronounce Tate?
TAYT
Hear it spoken aloud with our AI pronunciation tool.
what does Tate mean?
The name Tate means “cheerful, pleasant.” It comes from the English language tradition.
An Old Norse and Old English surname meaning cheerful. Also known as the surname of the famous Tate Modern art museum in London, originally named after sugar merchant Henry Tate.
where does the name Tate come from?
Wiktionary traces Tate to a Germanic root, partly from a reconstructed *Tāta associated with the sense radiant, glad, cheerful, or tender, and partly from Táta, a separate personal name whose meaning is recorded as unknown, so the two possible roots don't agree on a single sense.
the history of Tate
The only other source retrieved is about the Tate art institution in London, the network of four UK galleries that uses 'Tate' as its operating name; it does not mention Henry Tate or a sugar-merchant founder, so that detail isn't confirmed here, and nothing is said about Tate's history as a given name specifically.
how popular is this name?
| Year | Rank |
|---|---|
| 2025 | #194 |
| 2024 | #210 |
| 2023 | #197 |
| 2022 | #234 |
| 2021 | #304 |
| 2020 | #353 |
Source: SSA National Baby Names Dataset
what are the nicknames and variants of Tate?
Variants around the world
who are famous people named Tate?
- Sharon Tate (actress)
- Henry Tate (philanthropist)
what names are similar to Tate?
what names go well with Tate?
Sibling names that share Tate's rhythm and register without echoing it too closely.
Last reviewed April 30, 2026 · Curated by HushName editorial
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