Lonni
A diminutive of the feminine given name Lonnie, derived from Leonard.
Name Census estimates that about 351 living Americans carry the first name Lonni. It is a predominantly female name (95.6% of registrations). The average person named Lonni today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lonni births was 1956 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lonni. 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
351
~ 1 in 976,508 Americans
Peak year
1956
18 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1965 SSA rank
#3,431
Tracked since 1944
Census
Lonni in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 559 people with the first name Lonni, which placed it at #19,094 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
#19,094
National first-name rank
People counted
559
559 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lonni
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonni is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.2%) and Hispanic (3.9%). 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 Lonni 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 Lonni at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 455
- Black or African American8.2% · 46
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 22
- Two or more races3.6% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Lonni
Lonni leans heavily female at 95.6% of total registrations, but 19 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lonni as a male name
- Ranked #3,431 in 1965
- 7 male births in 1965
- Peak: 1964 (7 births)
Lonni as a female name
- Ranked #10,710 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lonni on both sides of the split. Of the 558 people counted with this name, 121 were male (21.7%) and 437 were female (78.3%).
Popularity
Lonni: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lonni from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 116 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lonni 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 Lonni 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 Lonni
The given name Lonni is believed to have its origins in the ancient Germanic languages, specifically Old Norse and Old English. It is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word "lun," which means "peaceful" or "calm." Alternatively, some linguists suggest it may be a diminutive form of the Old English name "Leofa," meaning "beloved."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lonni can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of medieval Norse literature dating back to the 13th century. In these sagas, Lonni is mentioned as the name of a minor character, a farmer or landowner in Iceland.
During the Middle Ages, the name Lonni was relatively uncommon but not unheard of in certain parts of Northern Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the Germanic regions. It was often associated with individuals of Norse or Germanic descent, though its usage was limited.
One notable historical figure with the name Lonni was Lonni Thorvaldsson, a 14th-century Norwegian explorer and navigator. He is said to have accompanied the Greenlandic expeditions led by Erik the Red and is believed to have been one of the first Europeans to set foot on the North American continent, predating Christopher Columbus by several centuries.
In the 16th century, a Dutch painter named Lonni van Haarlem gained some renown for his landscapes and still-life paintings. He was active in the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands during the Dutch Golden Age of painting.
Another historical figure with the name Lonni was Lonni Eriksson, a Swedish soldier and military leader who fought in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). He rose through the ranks to become a respected commander and played a significant role in several battles during the conflict.
In the 19th century, a Norwegian writer and poet named Lonni Bjørnson gained recognition for his works celebrating the natural beauty of his homeland and promoting Norwegian nationalism and independence. He was born in 1832 and passed away in 1910.
Throughout the centuries, the name Lonni has remained relatively rare, especially outside of its areas of origin in Northern Europe. However, it has persisted as a unique and historically significant name, carrying with it the echoes of ancient Germanic and Norse cultures.
People
Lonni + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lonni 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
Lonni: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lonni?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 351 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lonni 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 976,508 US residents.
Is Lonni a common name?
We classify Lonni as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 431 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lonni most popular?
The single biggest year for Lonni was 1956, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lonni is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lonni in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 559 people with the name Lonni, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,094 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 Lonni 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 Lonni?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lonni on both sides of the split. Of the 558 people counted with this name, 121 were male (21.7%) and 437 were female (78.3%). 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 Lonni?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonni is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.2%) and Hispanic (3.9%). 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 Lonni most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lonni in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (455 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 Lonni in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lonni a female name?
Yes, 95.6% of people registered as Lonni 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 Lonni still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lonni 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 Lonni 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 share the name Lonni?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.