Avonna
A feminine name of English origin meaning "desired child".
Name Census estimates that about 363 living Americans carry the first name Avonna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Avonna today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Avonna births was 2018 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Avonna. 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.
People living today
363
~ 1 in 944,227 Americans
Peak year
2018
22 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,345
Tracked since 1970
Census
Avonna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 279 people with the first name Avonna, which placed it at #30,942 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
#30,942
National first-name rank
People counted
279
279 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Avonna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Avonna is Black at 58.8%. The next largest groups are White (23.7%) and Hispanic (7.9%). 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 Avonna 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 Avonna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.8% · 164
- White23.7% · 66
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 22
- Two or more races7.9% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
Popularity
Avonna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Avonna from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 141 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Avonna remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Avonna 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 Avonna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Avonna
The name Avonna is a modern invention that appears to have no direct historical roots or origins. It does not derive from any known language or culture and there are no records of its usage in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical documents.
Despite its lack of historical pedigree, the name Avonna has been embraced by a small number of individuals in recent times. One notable bearer of the name was Avonna Mayne (1919-2009), an American actress known for her roles in several television series and films during the 1950s and 1960s. Her most prominent role was as Daisy Enright on the CBS sitcom The Real McCoys from 1957 to 1963.
Another individual named Avonna was Avonna Usry (1921-2005), an American jazz singer and songwriter active in the 1940s and 1950s. She is best remembered for her work with the jazz pianist and bandleader Art Tatum, with whom she recorded several albums.
In the literary world, Avonna Wornick (born 1955) is an American author and journalist who has written several books on parenting and family life. Her works include "Room for Two: A Memoir of Parenting and Sibling Loss" and "Creating a Life: Memoirs of a Writer, Teacher, and Parent."
Avonna Milliken (born 1969) is a Canadian painter and mixed media artist known for her vibrant and abstract works. Her artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions and galleries across Canada and internationally.
Lastly, Avonna Campinha-Bacote (born 1949) is an American nurse and academic who has made significant contributions to the field of transcultural nursing. She is the author of the widely-used model for delivering culturally competent care, known as "The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services."
While the name Avonna may be a modern invention, these individuals have helped to establish it as a unique and recognizable name in their respective fields and professions.
People
Avonna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Avonna 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
Avonna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Avonna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 363 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Avonna 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 944,227 US residents.
Is Avonna a common name?
We classify Avonna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 369 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Avonna most popular?
The single biggest year for Avonna was 2018, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Avonna is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Avonna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 279 people with the name Avonna, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,942 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 Avonna 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 Avonna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Avonna leans strongly female. 275 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.4%). 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 Avonna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Avonna is Black at 58.8%. The next largest groups are White (23.7%) and Hispanic (7.9%). 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 Avonna most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Avonna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.8% (164 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 Avonna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Avonna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Avonna 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 Avonna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Avonna 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 Avonna 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 many people are named Avonna?
Want to know how many people have the name Avonna? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.