Thaís
Meaning
possibly 'bandage' in Greek; the name of a companion of Alexander the Great (Portuguese form of Thaïs)
The story
Thaís is the Portuguese form of an ancient Greek name, used especially in Brazil, and every layer of it comes hedged straight from the sources. Behind the Name says the original, spelled Thais in Greek letters, possibly means bandage, and leaves it at possibly. Antiquity remembers a Greek woman of the name who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns. A fourth-century saint from Alexandria carried it next, a wealthy convert whose name, the entry notes, may have had a distinct Coptic origin instead. Art kept the name lit: Anatole France built an 1891 novel around the saint's story, and Jules Massenet turned it into an opera in 1894. In Brazil it is thoroughly established: the census counts 225,479 residents across its spellings, rank 140 nationwide, median age 27, with Taís as a common variant spelling worn by the actress Taís Araújo, born 1978. Spanish uses the plainer written form Thais. A name does not need a settled meaning when it arrives with this much story attached.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Thaís does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick.
Popularity in Brazil
225,479 people · the #140 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 901 · median age 27
Among people named Thaís living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 1,848 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Thaís deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Thaís truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Thaís fits with your family’s names and surname.
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