Lonie
A feminine name derived from the French word "lionet", meaning "little lion".
Name Census estimates that about 499 living Americans carry the first name Lonie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 60.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Lonie today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lonie births was 1919 (76 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lonie. 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.
Key insights
- • Lonie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Lonie is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lonies were born before 1965.
People living today
499
~ 1 in 686,882 Americans
Peak year
1919
76 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1990 SSA rank
#8,962
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lonie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 678 people with the first name Lonie, which placed it at #16,581 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
#16,581
National first-name rank
People counted
678
678 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lonie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonie is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (19.5%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Lonie 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 Lonie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 451
- Black or African American19.5% · 132
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 31
- Two or more races2.9% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Lonie
Lonie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,755 total registrations, 1,078 (39.1%) were male and 1,677 (60.9%) were female.
Lonie as a male name
- Ranked #8,962 in 1990
- 5 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1921 (33 births)
Lonie as a female name
- Ranked #13,620 in 1989
- 5 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1914 (44 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lonie on both sides of the split. Of the 678 people counted with this name, 323 were male (47.6%) and 355 were female (52.4%).
Popularity
Lonie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lonie from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 531 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lonie 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 Lonie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lonies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. North Carolina, Alabama, Texas recorded the most babies named Lonie, while California, South Carolina, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lonie
The name Lonie is a variant of the Greek name Leonie, which is a feminine form of the name Leon. The name Leon is derived from the Greek word "leon," meaning "lion." The name Lonie is thought to have originated in Greece during ancient times.
The earliest recorded use of the name Lonie dates back to the 16th century in Europe. During this time, the name was often spelled as "Loni" or "Lonnie." The name gained popularity in England and Scotland during the 17th and 18th centuries.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Lonie was Lonie Robertson, a Scottish poet who lived in the late 16th century. She is known for her collection of poetry titled "The Muses' Delight."
In the 19th century, Lonie Adair was a Scottish painter known for her landscape and portrait works. She was born in 1825 and died in 1901.
Lonie Macdonald was a Scottish journalist and author who lived from 1876 to 1945. She wrote several novels and short stories, many of which were set in her native Scotland.
Lonie Hislop was a British actress and singer who was active in the early 20th century. She appeared in several stage productions and recorded several popular songs during the 1920s.
Lonie Braithwaite was an English cricketer who played for the Surrey County Cricket Club in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in 1911 and died in 1986.
The name Lonie has been used throughout history, primarily in Europe, particularly in Scotland and England. While not as common as some other names, it has been used consistently over the centuries, often as a feminine variant of the name Leon or as a standalone name.
People
Lonie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lonie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lonie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lonie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 499 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lonie 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 686,882 US residents.
Is Lonie a common name?
We classify Lonie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,755 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lonie most popular?
The single biggest year for Lonie was 1919, when 76 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lonie is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lonie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 678 people with the name Lonie, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,581 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 Lonie 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 Lonie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lonie on both sides of the split. Of the 678 people counted with this name, 323 were male (47.6%) and 355 were female (52.4%). 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 Lonie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonie is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (19.5%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Lonie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lonie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (451 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 Lonie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lonie a female name?
Yes, 60.9% of people registered as Lonie 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 Lonie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lonie 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 Lonie 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 Lonie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Lonie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.