Onnie
Short and sweet in nature, a French name expressing simplicity.
Name Census estimates that about 404 living Americans carry the first name Onnie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 62.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Onnie today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Onnie births was 1915 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Onnie. 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
- • Onnie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Onnie is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Onnies were born before 1964.
People living today
404
~ 1 in 848,402 Americans
Peak year
1915
56 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1988 SSA rank
#8,179
Tracked since 1885
Census
Onnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 551 people with the first name Onnie, which placed it at #19,293 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
#19,293
National first-name rank
People counted
551
551 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Onnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Onnie is White at 47.0%. The next largest groups are Black (44.6%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Onnie 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 Onnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.0% · 259
- Black or African American44.6% · 246
- Two or more races3.1% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Onnie
Onnie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,736 total registrations, 657 (37.8%) were male and 1,079 (62.2%) were female.
Onnie as a male name
- Ranked #8,179 in 1988
- 5 male births in 1988
- Peak: 1915 (26 births)
Onnie as a female name
- Ranked #16,984 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1922 (33 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Onnie on both sides of the split. Of the 548 people counted with this name, 225 were male (41.1%) and 323 were female (58.9%).
Popularity
Onnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Onnie 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 401 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
Onnie 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 Onnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Onnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Onnie, while Tennessee, New York, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Onnie
The name Onnie has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically in Old English and Old Norse. It is believed to have derived from the Old English word "anne," meaning "honor" or "grace." The earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to the 8th century in various Anglo-Saxon records and texts.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Onnie was Onnie the Scribe, a renowned calligrapher and monk who lived in the 9th century. His exquisite handwriting and illuminated manuscripts are still preserved in various European libraries and monasteries. Another notable figure was Onnie of Lindisfarne, a Benedictine monk who lived in the 10th century and was known for his scholarly works on theology and philosophy.
During the Middle Ages, the name Onnie gained popularity among the nobility and aristocracy. One prominent figure was Onnie de Beaumont, a Norman noblewoman who lived in the 12th century and was known for her patronage of the arts and literature. She was also a close confidante of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the renowned Queen of England.
In the 16th century, Onnie Cromwell, a distant relative of Oliver Cromwell, was a prominent figure during the English Reformation. He was a staunch Protestant and played a significant role in the establishment of the Church of England under King Henry VIII.
Another historical figure with the name Onnie was Onnie Livingstone, a Scottish explorer and missionary who lived in the 19th century. He was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of Africa and made significant contributions to the study of African geography, culture, and languages.
While the name Onnie has its roots in the Germanic languages, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and regions throughout history. However, it is important to note that the name's popularity and usage have fluctuated over time, and it may not be as commonly used in modern times as it once was in the past.
People
Onnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Onnie 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
Onnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Onnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 404 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Onnie 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 848,402 US residents.
Is Onnie a common name?
We classify Onnie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,736 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Onnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Onnie was 1915, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Onnie 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 Onnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 551 people with the name Onnie, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,293 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 Onnie 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 Onnie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Onnie on both sides of the split. Of the 548 people counted with this name, 225 were male (41.1%) and 323 were female (58.9%). 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 Onnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Onnie is White at 47.0%. The next largest groups are Black (44.6%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Onnie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Onnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.0% (259 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 Onnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Onnie a female name?
Yes, 62.2% of people registered as Onnie 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 Onnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Onnie 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 Onnie 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 Onnie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Onnie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.