Given name & surname · also Spanish
Tio
“uncle”
Tio is a surname from Spanish, ultimately from Catalan. It is used in English, Tagalog, and Indonesian.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Tio is built from elements meaning “uncle” and “uncle”.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Tio comes from Spanish, and ultimately from Catalan.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Spanish Tío, from Portuguese Tio, from Catalan Tió.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1983. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Tio through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 12
- 12 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1983
- 12 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 12 in 1983. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 511 as a first name in 2020; 652 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Tio’s family of names
In Indonesian usage, Tio as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with CHONG. In Indonesian usage, Tio as a surname has a related form in Theo. In Indonesian usage, Tio as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with Chang.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Tio has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Catalan roots to each of them.
Catalanwhere Tio comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 5
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
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