Tonita
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "little one".
Name Census estimates that about 799 living Americans carry the first name Tonita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Tonita today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tonita births was 1965 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tonita. 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
799
~ 1 in 428,979 Americans
Peak year
1965
50 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
1999 SSA rank
#16,757
Tracked since 1911
Census
Tonita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 823 people with the first name Tonita, which placed it at #14,344 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
#14,344
National first-name rank
People counted
823
823 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
48.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tonita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tonita is Black at 48.1%. The next largest groups are White (30.9%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Tonita 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 Tonita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American48.1% · 396
- White30.9% · 254
- Hispanic or Latino11.5% · 95
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.7% · 39
- Two or more races4.0% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 6
Popularity
Tonita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tonita from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 249 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tonita 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 Tonita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tonitas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. North Carolina, New Mexico, Alabama recorded the most babies named Tonita, while Alabama, New Mexico, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tonita
Tonita is a feminine given name with origins that can be traced back to the Latin language. It is believed to have derived from the Roman name Antonia, which itself has roots in the Latin word "ante," meaning "before" or "ancient." This suggests that the name may have been used to denote someone born earlier or from an ancient lineage.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, the name Antonia gained popularity across the Roman Empire, particularly in regions where Latin was spoken. As the Roman influence spread, so too did the use of this name and its variants, including Tonita.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Tonita can be found in medieval manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula, where it appears to have been used by both Christian and Muslim communities during the Middle Ages. This suggests that the name may have been introduced to the region during the Roman occupation and subsequently adapted by different cultural and religious groups.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tonita. One such figure was Tonita of Barcelos, a Portuguese noblewoman who lived in the 13th century and was known for her involvement in the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule.
Another historical figure was Tonita de Villanueva, a Spanish nun and mystic who lived in the 16th century and was renowned for her visions and spiritual writings. She is considered a significant figure in the Catholic Church's history of mysticism.
In the realm of literature, Tonita was the name of a character in the 19th-century Spanish novel "Doña Perfecta" by Benito Pérez Galdós. The novel explores themes of religious intolerance and social conflict in rural Spain.
Moving forward in time, Tonita Peña was a renowned Mexican singer and actress who rose to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s. She was celebrated for her contributions to the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and her interpretations of traditional Mexican folk songs.
More recently, Tonita Castro was a Chilean human rights activist and political figure who played a crucial role in the struggle against the Pinochet regime in the 1970s and 1980s. She was a prominent member of the Communist Party of Chile and worked tirelessly to denounce human rights violations during the dictatorship.
While the name Tonita has its roots in ancient Latin and has been used across various cultures and time periods, its enduring presence in certain regions, particularly the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, highlights the lasting influence of the Roman Empire and the diffusion of Latin-derived names throughout the world.
People
Tonita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tonita as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tonita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tonita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 799 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tonita 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 428,979 US residents.
Is Tonita a common name?
We classify Tonita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,102 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tonita most popular?
The single biggest year for Tonita was 1965, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tonita is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tonita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 823 people with the name Tonita, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,344 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 Tonita 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 Tonita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Tonita appears almost entirely female. Of the 818 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Tonita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tonita is Black at 48.1%. The next largest groups are White (30.9%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Tonita most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tonita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.1% (396 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 Tonita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tonita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tonita 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 Tonita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tonita 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 Tonita 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 Tonita?
See how many people share the name Tonita on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.