Vonnie
A feminine diminutive of the Germanic name Yvonne.
Name Census estimates that about 1,864 living Americans carry the first name Vonnie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Vonnie today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vonnie births was 1959 (111 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vonnie. 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
- • The typical person named Vonnie is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Vonnies were born before 1968.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 183,881 Americans
Peak year
1959
111 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
1989 SSA rank
#9,175
Tracked since 1888
Census
Vonnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,183 people with the first name Vonnie, which placed it at #7,092 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
#7,092
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,183 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vonnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vonnie is White at 73.1%. The next largest groups are Black (17.4%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Vonnie 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 Vonnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.1% · 1,595
- Black or African American17.4% · 379
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 69
- Two or more races2.5% · 55
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 41
Gender
Gender distribution for Vonnie
Vonnie leans heavily female at 89.7% of total registrations, but 424 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Vonnie as a male name
- Ranked #9,175 in 1989
- 5 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1930 (17 births)
Vonnie as a female name
- Ranked #10,190 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (102 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vonnie leans strongly female. 1,975 people counted with this name were female (90.5%), compared with 208 male bearers (9.5%).
Popularity
Vonnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vonnie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 922 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vonnie 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 Vonnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vonnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Vonnie, while Oregon, Oklahoma, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 42 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vonnie
The name Vonnie is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Avonia, which originated in the 6th century. Avonia is derived from the Old High German words "avo" meaning "ancestor" and "nia" meaning "ever". The name was popular among the Franks, a Germanic tribe that settled in present-day France and parts of Germany during the Migration Period.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Avonia was a Frankish noblewoman who lived in the 7th century. She was known for her patronage of Christian monasteries and her charitable works. The name Vonnie emerged as a shortened version of Avonia in the Middle Ages.
In the 9th century, a nun named Vonnie was mentioned in the chronicles of the Abbey of Remiremont in present-day eastern France. She was renowned for her piety and devotion to the religious life. Another notable bearer of the name was Vonnie of Saxony, a 12th-century Benedictine abbess who played a significant role in the reform of monastic life in her region.
During the Renaissance, the name Vonnie was occasionally used by noble families in Germany and the Low Countries. One notable example was Vonnie von Anhalt, a 16th-century noblewoman who was a patron of the arts and a supporter of the Protestant Reformation.
In the 17th century, Vonnie Schuyler was a Dutch-American woman who was one of the founders of the city of Albany, New York. She was known for her role in establishing trade and diplomatic relations between the Dutch settlers and the Native American tribes in the region.
In the 19th century, Vonnie Ream was an American sculptor who gained fame for her portrait bust of Abraham Lincoln, which she sculpted from life in 1865. She later became the first female artist to be employed by the United States government for a commission.
While the name Vonnie has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has been borne by a few notable individuals who have left their mark in various fields, including religion, art, and politics. The name's Germanic origins and rich historical associations have contributed to its enduring appeal as a diminutive form of the more traditional Avonia.
People
Vonnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vonnie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vonnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vonnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,864 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vonnie 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 183,881 US residents.
Is Vonnie a common name?
We classify Vonnie as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vonnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Vonnie was 1959, when 111 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vonnie is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vonnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,183 people with the name Vonnie, or 0.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,092 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 Vonnie 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 Vonnie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vonnie leans strongly female. 1,975 people counted with this name were female (90.5%), compared with 208 male bearers (9.5%). 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 Vonnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vonnie is White at 73.1%. The next largest groups are Black (17.4%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Vonnie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vonnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.1% (1,595 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 Vonnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vonnie a female name?
Yes, 89.7% of people registered as Vonnie 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 Vonnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vonnie 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 Vonnie 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 have Vonnie as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Vonnie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.