Taken from the animal name tiger, used as a bold modern name suggesting strength and fierceness.
Tiger arrived in English via Old French tigre and Latin tigris, themselves borrowed from the Greek tigris, which most scholars trace to an Old Iranian root meaning arrow — a reference to the animal's terrifying speed. The tiger has prowled human imagination since antiquity: in Hindu mythology the goddess Durga rides one into battle; in William Blake's poem The Tyger, published in 1794, the beast becomes a sublime symbol of divine ferocity and mystery; and in Chinese culture it stands as one of the twelve zodiac animals, representing courage, ambition, and unpredictability. As a given name, Tiger was exceedingly rare until December 1975, when the American golfer Earl Woods gave his newborn son the nickname Tiger in tribute to a South Vietnamese army friend, Vuong Dang Phong, who had also been called Tiger for his battlefield bravery.
Eldrick 'Tiger' Woods grew up to become arguably the most famous athlete of his generation, winning fifteen major championships and reshaping global perceptions of golf. His name became synonymous with focused, relentless excellence. The name carries obvious risks of feeling like a statement rather than an identity, but that tension is part of its appeal.
Parents who choose Tiger are signalling audacity — they want their child to move through the world with presence. It has never become common, which keeps it striking, and its cross-cultural resonance in East Asian, South Asian, and Western contexts gives it an unusual breadth for so short and vivid a word.