Monnie
Diminutive of Moira, meaning "destiny" or "fate" of Scottish origin.
Name Census estimates that about 560 living Americans carry the first name Monnie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Monnie today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Monnie births was 1917 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Monnie. 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
- • The typical person named Monnie is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Monnies were born before 1964.
People living today
560
~ 1 in 612,061 Americans
Peak year
1917
48 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1975 SSA rank
#4,635
Tracked since 1884
Census
Monnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 870 people with the first name Monnie, which placed it at #13,758 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
#13,758
National first-name rank
People counted
870
870 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Monnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Monnie is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Monnie 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 Monnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.9% · 686
- Black or African American13.2% · 115
- Two or more races3.0% · 26
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Monnie
Monnie leans heavily female at 87.8% of total registrations, but 258 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Monnie as a male name
- Ranked #4,635 in 1975
- 7 male births in 1975
- Peak: 1953 (17 births)
Monnie as a female name
- Ranked #16,900 in 2021
- 5 female births in 2021
- Peak: 1922 (46 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Monnie on both sides of the split. Of the 867 people counted with this name, 214 were male (24.7%) and 653 were female (75.3%).
Popularity
Monnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Monnie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 399 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Monnie 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 Monnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Monnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Monnie, while Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 71 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Monnie
The name Monnie is a diminutive form of the name Mona, which is derived from the Arabic word "munna" meaning "wish" or "desire." The name has its origins in the Middle East, with records of its use dating back to the 7th century AD.
The earliest known bearer of the name Monnie was Mona bint Bashir, a 7th-century Arabian poet and scholar who was renowned for her works on love and desire. Her poetry explored themes of longing and passion, reflecting the meaning of her name.
In the 12th century, a Sicilian noblewoman named Monnie di Palermo became a prominent figure in the court of King Roger II of Sicily. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her influence on the cultural exchanges between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the Norman rule of Sicily.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Monnie was Monnie Fergusson, a Scottish botanist and explorer who lived from 1788 to 1857. She was one of the first women to study plant life in the Himalayan region and made significant contributions to the field of botany.
Another notable bearer of the name was Monnie Woodruff, an American civil rights activist and educator who lived from 1922 to 2007. She played a pivotal role in desegregating schools in the Southern United States and was a prominent figure in the fight for racial equality.
In the realm of literature, the name Monnie is associated with Monnie Hines, an American novelist and short story writer who lived from 1924 to 1998. Her works often explored themes of identity, family, and the complexities of human relationships.
Throughout history, the name Monnie has been borne by individuals from various cultures and backgrounds, each leaving their mark in their respective fields and communities. While the name's origins can be traced back to the Middle East, it has transcended geographical boundaries and taken on new meanings and associations across the ages.
People
Monnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Monnie 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
Monnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Monnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 560 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Monnie 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 612,061 US residents.
Is Monnie a common name?
We classify Monnie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,119 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Monnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Monnie was 1917, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Monnie is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Monnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 870 people with the name Monnie, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,758 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 Monnie 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 Monnie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Monnie on both sides of the split. Of the 867 people counted with this name, 214 were male (24.7%) and 653 were female (75.3%). 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 Monnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Monnie is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Monnie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Monnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.9% (686 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 Monnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Monnie a female name?
Yes, 87.8% of people registered as Monnie 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 Monnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Monnie 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 Monnie 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 called Monnie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.