Nonnie
A feminine name, an affectionate diminutive form of Eleanor.
Name Census estimates that about 163 living Americans carry the first name Nonnie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nonnie today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nonnie births was 1919 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nonnie. 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 Nonnie is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Nonnies were born before 1965.
People living today
163
~ 1 in 2,102,787 Americans
Peak year
1919
25 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1978 SSA rank
#7,429
Tracked since 1887
Census
Nonnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 337 people with the first name Nonnie, which placed it at #27,242 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
#27,242
National first-name rank
People counted
337
337 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nonnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nonnie is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.9%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Nonnie 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 Nonnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.7% · 228
- Black or African American16.9% · 57
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 14
- Two or more races3.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 7
Popularity
Nonnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nonnie from the 1880s through to the 1970s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 153 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
Nonnie 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 Nonnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nonnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. North Carolina, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Nonnie, while Tennessee, Georgia, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nonnie
The name Nonnie has its origins in the Italian language, where it is a diminutive form of the name Annunziata, meaning "the annunciation" or "the announcement." This refers to the biblical event of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and give birth to the Son of God. The name Annunziata has been in use in Italy since the Middle Ages, and the diminutive form Nonnie emerged as a nickname or pet name for girls named Annunziata.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Nonnie was occasionally recorded in historical documents and records from various regions of Italy, particularly in the southern regions where the name Annunziata was more popular. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nonnie can be found in a baptismal record from the city of Naples, dated 1587, where a baby girl was christened with the name Nonnie.
While the name Nonnie was not widely used outside of Italy in its early history, it did make occasional appearances in other parts of Europe and the Americas, likely due to Italian immigration. One notable individual named Nonnie was Nonnie Thompson Moore (1876-1962), an American author and poet from Virginia, who published several volumes of poetry and children's stories during the early 20th century.
Another historical figure with the name Nonnie was Nonnie Bolton (1905-1972), a British actress and singer who appeared in numerous stage productions and films in the 1930s and 1940s. In the realm of sports, Nonnie Edith Kath (1920-2005) was a Canadian athlete who competed in the javelin throw at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.
In the world of art, Nonnie Moore (1933-2021) was an American painter and printmaker known for her abstract expressionist works, which were exhibited in galleries across the United States. Lastly, Nonnie Engeldahl (born 1945) is a Swedish author and translator who has published several novels and translations of works from English to Swedish.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who carried the name Nonnie, highlighting its use in various cultural and geographical contexts.
People
Nonnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nonnie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nonnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nonnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 163 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nonnie 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 2,102,787 US residents.
Is Nonnie a common name?
We classify Nonnie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 743 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nonnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Nonnie was 1919, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nonnie 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 Nonnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 337 people with the name Nonnie, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,242 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 Nonnie 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 Nonnie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nonnie leans strongly female. 299 people counted with this name were female (90.3%), compared with 32 male bearers (9.7%). 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 Nonnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nonnie is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.9%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Nonnie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nonnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.7% (228 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 Nonnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nonnie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nonnie 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 Nonnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nonnie 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 Nonnie 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 Nonnie?
See how many Americans are named Nonnie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.