Onnalee
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a variant of Annalee.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Onnalee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Onnalee today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Onnalee births was 1931 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Onnalee. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Onnalee. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
1931
6 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2019 SSA rank
#17,356
Tracked since 1917
Popularity
Onnalee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Onnalee from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 10 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Onnalee 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 Onnalee 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 Onnalee
The name Onnalee is of uncertain origin, with no clear consensus on its linguistic roots or cultural background. Some scholars suggest it may have derived from a combination of Old English or Old Norse words, potentially related to terms for "noble" or "beloved." However, concrete evidence for this is lacking.
Onnalee does not appear to have any historical references in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or notable records from past eras. The name seems to have emerged more recently, likely within the past few centuries, without a well-documented lineage.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Onnalee are relatively sparse and scattered. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Onnalee Driskel, an American writer and poet from the late 19th century, born in 1867 and active until the 1920s.
Another early figure was Onnalee Blanchard, a French-Canadian artist and sculptor who lived from 1882 to 1963. Her works were displayed in galleries throughout Quebec and Ontario during the early 20th century.
In the mid-20th century, Onnalee Rigby was a notable American educator and school administrator from Virginia, serving as principal of several schools between the 1940s and 1970s.
Onnalee Hawkins, born in 1921, was a British stage actress and singer who performed in numerous West End productions and musicals throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
A more recent example is Onnalee Quirke, an Irish fashion designer and entrepreneur born in 1978, who founded a successful clothing line in the early 2000s.
While these individuals represent a diverse range of backgrounds and professions, they share the uncommon first name Onnalee, which remains relatively rare and without a clearly defined historical or linguistic origin.
People
Onnalee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Onnalee 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
Onnalee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Onnalee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Onnalee 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Onnalee a common name?
We classify Onnalee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Onnalee most popular?
The single biggest year for Onnalee was 1931, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Onnalee is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Onnalee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Onnalee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Onnalee 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 Onnalee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Onnalee 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 Onnalee 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have the name Onnalee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.