Antonina
A feminine name of Russian origin meaning "highly praiseworthy."
Name Census estimates that about 1,681 living Americans carry the first name Antonina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Antonina today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Antonina births was 1915 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Antonina. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Antonina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 203,899 Americans
Peak year
1915
57 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,440
Tracked since 1893
Census
Antonina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,522 people with the first name Antonina, which placed it at #4,216 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,216
National first-name rank
People counted
4.5K
4,522 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Antonina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Antonina is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Antonina described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Antonina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.9% · 3,566
- Hispanic or Latino10.9% · 493
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 302
- Black or African American2.0% · 90
- Two or more races1.3% · 59
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 12
Popularity
Antonina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Antonina from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 326 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Antonina remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Antonina by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Antonina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Antoninas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, California, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Antonina, while Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 103 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Antonina
The name Antonina has its origins in Ancient Rome, tracing back to the Latin name Antonius. It is the feminine form of the name and was commonly used among the Roman aristocracy during the Roman Empire. The name is derived from the Roman family name "Antonius", which is believed to have Etruscan roots.
During the early Christian era, the name Antonina gained popularity due to its association with Saint Antonina, a Christian martyr from the 3rd century AD. She was a virgin and martyr who suffered during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Her story is recounted in various early Christian writings, contributing to the spread of the name among Christians.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Antonina dates back to the 5th century AD when it was borne by Antonina, the wife of the Eastern Roman Emperor Belisarius. She played a significant role in the military campaigns of her husband, who was a renowned general under the reign of Justinian I.
Throughout history, several notable figures have carried the name Antonina, including Antonina Mikhailovna, the daughter of Tsar Michael I of Russia, who lived in the 17th century. Another prominent Antonina was Antonina Nikolayevna Velyo, a Russian ballerina and pedagogue who lived from 1868 to 1916 and made significant contributions to the world of ballet.
In the field of literature, Antonina Davydova was a Russian writer and poet who lived from 1773 to 1839. She was known for her poetry and prose works, which often depicted the lives of Russian nobility and gentry.
Another historical figure bearing the name Antonina was Antonina Iosifovna Nezhdanova, a Russian revolutionary and Bolshevik who lived from 1873 to 1950. She played an active role in the Russian Revolution and was a prominent figure in the early years of the Soviet Union.
The name Antonina has also been used in various cultures and languages throughout history, with variations in spelling and pronunciation. For example, in Polish, the name is spelled "Antonina", while in Spanish, it is "Antonina" or "Antonia".
People
Antonina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Antonina as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Antonina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Antonina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,681 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Antonina going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 203,899 US residents.
Is Antonina a common name?
We classify Antonina as "Rare". It ranks above 93% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,778 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Antonina most popular?
The single biggest year for Antonina was 1915, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Antonina is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Antonina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,522 people with the name Antonina, or 1.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,216 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Antonina in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Antonina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Antonina appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,516 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Antonina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Antonina is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Antonina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Antonina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.9% (3,566 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Antonina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Antonina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Antonina in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Antonina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Antonina in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Antonina can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Antonina?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.