Pronounced as ‘Tye-Ler’ or ‘tie-lur’, Tyler is a unisex first name although it is mostly used for boys. It is originally an English last name. The last name came about from the occupation of the very first ‘Tyler’. The name means ’tiler’ or ’tile layer’ which means a man who made and laid tiles in pavements, floors and roof.

It is also taken from the Middle English word ’tile’ which literally means tile and tile came from the Old English word ‘tigele’. Tigele means ‘to cover’. It is also spelt as Tilor or Tylor. It is also a variant of Taylor which carries a different meaning altogether. Taylor means ‘tailor’ and is often used for girls although if it is in French, it could also used for boys.

Amongst the famous personalities with Tyler as a last name includes US President John Tyler (1841-1845), Liv Tyler (the actress and daughter of Steven Tyler), lead singer of Aerosmith Steven Tyler, singer Bonnie Tyler and an English member of the House of Lords, Paul Archer Tyler.

Over the centuries, this English last name became popularly used as a first name for girls and boys.

In US, it is the top 1,000 favorite boys name and it reached its height of popularity in the 1990s where out of every million births, about 12,500 boys are named Tyler.

Prior to that, in the 1980s this name was popularly used for girls.

Famous personalities with Tyler as the first name includes music producer and composer Tyler Bates, American actress Tyler Gannon, actress Ty Pennington, American singer, songwriter and actor Tyler James Hilton and actor Tyler James William.

This name was also popularly used as first and last names for characters in works of fiction and in movies such as Tyler Stone who is a villain in Marvel Comics’ Spiderman, Tyler Durden who is a character in the novel Fight Club, Darcy Tyler who is a character in Australian soap opera Neighbours, a DC Comics superhero Rick Tyler (also known as Hourman) and many more.

Tyler is also the name of a city in Texas which was presumably named after the president John Tyler.

Due to the brevity of the name there are few nicknames for Tyler except for its shortened form ‘Ty’.

There are several other variations and different spellings to the name Tyler such as Tyla, Tylee, Tylena, Tyller, Tyeler, Tayler, Talora, Tailor and Tahlor.