Tonnie
A diminutive or feminine form of the masculine name Anthony.
Name Census estimates that about 866 living Americans carry the first name Tonnie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 59.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Tonnie today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tonnie births was 1960 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tonnie. 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
- • Tonnie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
866
~ 1 in 395,790 Americans
Peak year
1960
51 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2008 SSA rank
#14,416
Tracked since 1915
Census
Tonnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 877 people with the first name Tonnie, which placed it at #13,680 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
#13,680
National first-name rank
People counted
877
877 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Tonnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tonnie is Black at 45.0%. The next largest groups are White (44.8%) and Hispanic (4.8%). 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 Tonnie 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 Tonnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.0% · 395
- White44.8% · 393
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 42
- Two or more races3.4% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Tonnie
Tonnie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,157 total registrations, 473 (40.9%) were male and 684 (59.1%) were female.
Tonnie as a male name
- Ranked #14,416 in 2008
- 5 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1960 (24 births)
Tonnie as a female name
- Ranked #17,483 in 2007
- 6 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1963 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tonnie on both sides of the split. Of the 877 people counted with this name, 336 were male (38.3%) and 541 were female (61.7%).
Popularity
Tonnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Tonnie from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 385 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Tonnie 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 Tonnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tonnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Mississippi, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Tonnie, while Texas, Michigan, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Tonnie
The given name Tonnie originated in the Netherlands and surrounding regions as a diminutive form of the Dutch name Antonie. The name Antonie itself is derived from the ancient Roman family name Antonius, which has its roots in the Latin word "antevenio," meaning "to go before" or "to anticipate."
Tonnie was a popular name in the Netherlands during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, particularly among the Dutch aristocracy and merchant classes. It was commonly used as a shortened version of Antonie, reflecting the cultural tradition of using diminutive forms of names as a sign of affection or familiarity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Tonnie can be found in the historical records of the city of Amsterdam in the 16th century. Tonnie van der Meer, a prominent merchant and alderman, was mentioned in city documents dating back to 1572.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Tonnie. One of the most famous was Tonnie Hubert (1538-1597), a Dutch Catholic priest and theologian who played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation movement in the Low Countries.
Another notable figure was Tonnie Simons (1652-1718), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his portraiture and genre scenes. His works can be found in several prestigious museums, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
In the field of literature, Tonnie Cornelis Valkhoff (1868-1942) was a prominent Dutch poet and writer. He was a member of the renowned literary circle known as the "Tachtigers" and contributed significantly to the modernist movement in Dutch literature.
Moving into the 20th century, Tonnie van Meel (1917-2005) was a renowned Dutch architect and urban planner. He was instrumental in the design and development of several iconic buildings and urban areas in the Netherlands, including the Amsterdam Bijlmer neighborhood.
Lastly, Tonnie Ackstrom (1934-2017) was a celebrated Swedish-Dutch singer and actress. She gained popularity in the Netherlands for her performances in both musicals and films, and was widely recognized for her versatility and talent.
People
Tonnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tonnie 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
Tonnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tonnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 866 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tonnie 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 395,790 US residents.
Is Tonnie a common name?
We classify Tonnie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,157 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tonnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Tonnie was 1960, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tonnie is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Tonnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 877 people with the name Tonnie, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,680 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 Tonnie 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 Tonnie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Tonnie on both sides of the split. Of the 877 people counted with this name, 336 were male (38.3%) and 541 were female (61.7%). 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 Tonnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Tonnie is Black at 45.0%. The next largest groups are White (44.8%) and Hispanic (4.8%). 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 Tonnie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Tonnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.0% (395 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 Tonnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tonnie a female name?
Yes, 59.1% of people registered as Tonnie 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 Tonnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tonnie 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 Tonnie 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 people are called Tonnie?
You can see how many Americans are named Tonnie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.