Monette
A French feminine diminutive of the name Simone, meaning "hearer".
Name Census estimates that about 873 living Americans carry the first name Monette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Monette today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Monette births was 1962 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Monette. 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
873
~ 1 in 392,617 Americans
Peak year
1962
40 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2022 SSA rank
#16,967
Tracked since 1910
Census
Monette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,342 people with the first name Monette, which placed it at #10,072 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
#10,072
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,342 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
40.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Monette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Monette is White at 40.7%. The next largest groups are Black (25.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (21.8%). 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 Monette 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 Monette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White40.7% · 546
- Black or African American25.3% · 340
- Asian and Pacific Islander21.8% · 293
- Hispanic or Latino8.4% · 113
- Two or more races3.3% · 44
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 6
Popularity
Monette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Monette from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 356 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Monette 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 Monette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Monettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Monette, while Tennessee, Ohio, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Monette
The given name Monette is a French feminine diminutive form of the name Simone, which itself derives from the Hebrew name Shim'on, meaning "he has heard" or "he has been heard." The earliest known use of Monette dates back to the late 18th century in France.
Monette is believed to have been popularized by its association with the French phrase "ma petite," meaning "my little one." This endearing term of affection may have contributed to the name's adoption and use as a diminutive form of Simone.
In the 19th century, Monette gained some popularity among French aristocratic families. One notable bearer of the name was Monette de Brie (1825-1896), a French courtier and lady-in-waiting to Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.
Another historically significant figure named Monette was Monette Bouton (1840-1921), a French writer and novelist known for her works exploring the lives of working-class women in Paris during the late 19th century.
In the early 20th century, Monette Kahn (1898-1978) was a French actress and singer who performed in numerous Parisian revues and operas. Her career spanned several decades, and she was celebrated for her performances in operettas and musicals.
Across the Atlantic, Monette Moore (1902-1962) was an American actress and dancer who appeared in numerous Broadway productions and Hollywood films during the 1920s and 1930s. She is best remembered for her roles in the Marx Brothers' films "Animal Crackers" (1930) and "Monkey Business" (1931).
Monette Beaugrand (1913-2007) was a Canadian writer and journalist from Quebec. She was a prominent figure in the Quebec literary scene and served as the president of the Société des écrivains canadiens (Society of Canadian Writers) from 1972 to 1974.
People
Monette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Monette as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Monette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Monette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 873 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Monette 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 392,617 US residents.
Is Monette a common name?
We classify Monette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,335 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Monette most popular?
The single biggest year for Monette was 1962, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Monette is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Monette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,342 people with the name Monette, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,072 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 Monette 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 Monette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Monette appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,347 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Monette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Monette is White at 40.7%. The next largest groups are Black (25.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (21.8%). 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 Monette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Monette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.7% (546 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 Monette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Monette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Monette 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 Monette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Monette 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 Monette 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 Monette?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.