Oneil
A masculine name of Irish origin meaning "descendant of the passionate one".
Name Census estimates that about 1,076 living Americans carry the first name Oneil. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Oneil today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Oneil births was 1924 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Oneil. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Oneil with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 318,545 Americans
Peak year
1924
43 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,683
Tracked since 1892
Census
Oneil in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,025 people with the first name Oneil, which placed it at #7,511 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
#7,511
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,025 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
75.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Oneil
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Oneil is Black at 75.2%. The next largest groups are White (13.5%) 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 Oneil 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 Oneil at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American75.2% · 1,523
- White13.5% · 273
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 119
- Two or more races2.7% · 54
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Oneil
Out of the 1,766 babies given the name Oneil since 1880, 99.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Oneil as a male name
- Ranked #9,604 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (38 births)
Oneil as a female name
- Ranked #5,683 in 1924
- 5 female births in 1924
- Peak: 1918 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Oneil leans strongly male. 1,967 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 55 female bearers (2.7%).
Popularity
Oneil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Oneil from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 269 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
Oneil 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 Oneil during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Oneils live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, Louisiana, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Oneil, while North Carolina, Maine, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Oneil
The name Oneil has its origins in the Gaelic language, tracing back to Ireland and Scotland in the Middle Ages. It is a variant spelling of the name Niall, which itself derives from the Old Irish word "Niall" or "Nial," meaning "champion" or "cloud."
The name Niall was popular among ancient Irish kings and nobility, with one of the earliest recorded instances being Niall Noígiallach, an Irish king who ruled in the 5th century AD. He was known as Niall of the Nine Hostages, and his descendants went on to establish several powerful dynasties in Ireland, including the Uí Néill.
Oneil emerged as an anglicized spelling of the name Niall, particularly among Irish families who migrated to English-speaking regions or adopted English naming conventions. This variant spelling became more prevalent in the 17th and 18th centuries, during the waves of Irish immigration to the Americas and other parts of the world.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the Oneil spelling can be found in the writings of Edmund Spenser, an English poet who lived in Ireland during the 16th century. In his work "A View of the Present State of Ireland," Spenser mentions "the great O'Neale" in reference to the powerful O'Neill dynasty.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the first name Oneil or its variant spellings. One of the most famous was Oneil Longmuir (1875-1949), a Scottish actor and playwright who was a prominent figure in the early 20th century Scottish Renaissance movement.
Another notable figure was Oneil Desiderio (1842-1913), an Italian-American musician and composer who is credited with introducing Italian opera to the United States. He was a renowned conductor and founded the Desiderio Opera Company in New York City.
In the realm of sports, Oneil Cruz (born 1998) is a prominent baseball player from the Dominican Republic, currently playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Major League Baseball.
Oneil Banton (born 1988) is a Jamaican reggae artist and songwriter, known for his collaborations with various dancehall and reggae artists.
Finally, Oneil Balkaran (1912-1989) was a Trinidadian lawyer and politician who served as the first President of Trinidad and Tobago after the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1976.
People
Oneil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Oneil as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Oneil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Oneil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,076 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Oneil 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 318,545 US residents.
Is Oneil a common name?
We classify Oneil as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,766 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Oneil most popular?
The single biggest year for Oneil was 1924, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Oneil is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Oneil in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,025 people with the name Oneil, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,511 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 Oneil 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 Oneil?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Oneil leans strongly male. 1,967 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 55 female bearers (2.7%). 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 Oneil?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Oneil is Black at 75.2%. The next largest groups are White (13.5%) 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 Oneil most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Oneil in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.2% (1,523 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 Oneil in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Oneil a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Oneil in the SSA data are male. 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 Oneil still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Oneil 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 Oneil 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 Americans are named Oneil?
See how many people have the name Oneil on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.