Thaïs

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Girl · Greek

Thaïs

Say it: TAH-iss

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Uncertain. No agreed etymology.

Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.

Kept alive by the legend of Saint Thaïs and Massenet's opera of 1894; Thaís is still given in Brazil and Taisiya in Russia.

Its wave through time

Most used in the 2000s

In the United States

020406018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 2001per million babies of that sex
  • 2,072 babies given this name since 1909
  • At its height in 2001, about 1 in 21,400 girls
  • 21 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
  2. The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

Ancient GreekFrenchRussianBrazilianPortuguese

The family of the name

Other spellings: Thais, Taïs

FrenchThaïs
RussianTaisiya
PortugueseThaís
ItalianTaide

Famous bearers

  • Thaïs, Athenian hetaira who accompanied Alexander the Great
  • Saint Thaïs of Egypt

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Ancient Greek literature and history (Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch and others)
  • Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
  • Well-known works of literature
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.