Ronita
A feminine name meaning "voice", derived from Latin.
Name Census estimates that about 600 living Americans carry the first name Ronita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ronita today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ronita births was 1974 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ronita. 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.
People living today
600
~ 1 in 571,257 Americans
Peak year
1974
31 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1999 SSA rank
#14,049
Tracked since 1940
Census
Ronita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 671 people with the first name Ronita, which placed it at #16,695 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
#16,695
National first-name rank
People counted
671
671 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ronita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronita is Black at 45.8%. The next largest groups are White (33.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (13.3%). 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 Ronita 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 Ronita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.8% · 307
- White33.7% · 226
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.3% · 89
- Two or more races3.3% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 10
Popularity
Ronita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ronita from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 195 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Ronita remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ronita 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 Ronita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ronitas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ronita
The name Ronita is a feminine given name that originated in India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "roni," which means "wave" or "undulation." The earliest known usage of this name dates back to ancient Hindu texts and scriptures from around the 5th century BCE.
In Hindu mythology, Ronita was the name of a celestial nymph who was known for her beauty and grace. She was often depicted as a dancer, embodying the rhythmic movements of the ocean waves. The name Ronita was associated with qualities such as elegance, fluidity, and harmony.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Ronita was a classical Indian dancer who lived in the 7th century CE. She was renowned for her exceptional skill and her ability to captivate audiences with her fluid movements. Unfortunately, historical records do not provide her full name or exact dates of birth and death.
During the medieval period, the name Ronita gained popularity among the Hindu nobility and aristocracy. Notable figures with this name include Ronita Devi, a 12th-century queen consort of the Chaulukya dynasty in present-day Gujarat, India. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her commitment to charitable causes.
In the 16th century, Ronita Bai was a celebrated poet and courtesan in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Her poetic works, written in Persian and Brajbhasha, were widely admired for their lyrical beauty and depth of emotion.
Another prominent figure bearing the name Ronita was Ronita Chaudhuri, a renowned Indian classical dancer who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was instrumental in reviving and promoting the ancient dance form of Odissi, which had fallen into obscurity during the British colonial era.
Ronita Thapar, born in 1942, is a distinguished Indian historian and writer. She has made significant contributions to the study of ancient Indian history and has authored numerous books and scholarly works on the subject.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Ronita. While the name has its origins in ancient India, it has since been adopted and used in various cultural contexts around the world, each adding its own unique nuances and associations to this beautiful and melodic name.
People
Ronita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ronita as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ronita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ronita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 600 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ronita 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 571,257 US residents.
Is Ronita a common name?
We classify Ronita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 713 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ronita most popular?
The single biggest year for Ronita was 1974, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ronita is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ronita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 671 people with the name Ronita, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,695 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 Ronita 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 Ronita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ronita appears almost entirely female. Of the 671 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Ronita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronita is Black at 45.8%. The next largest groups are White (33.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (13.3%). 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 Ronita most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ronita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.8% (307 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 Ronita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ronita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ronita 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 Ronita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ronita 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 Ronita 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 Ronita?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Ronita at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.