Lonny
Diminutive form of Lancelot, a masculine name meaning "servant" or "vassal".
Name Census estimates that about 4,986 living Americans carry the first name Lonny. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Lonny today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lonny births was 1957 (213 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lonny. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Lonny with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lonny is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 56 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
5.0K
~ 1 in 68,743 Americans
Peak year
1957
213 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,495
Tracked since 1920
Census
Lonny in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,651 people with the first name Lonny, which placed it at #4,132 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
#4,132
National first-name rank
People counted
4.7K
4,651 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lonny
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonny is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Lonny 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 Lonny at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.8% · 3,942
- Black or African American5.0% · 233
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 195
- Two or more races3.8% · 175
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 63
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 43
Gender
Gender distribution for Lonny
Out of the 6,408 babies given the name Lonny since 1880, 99.1% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Lonny as a male name
- Ranked #13,408 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (213 births)
Lonny as a female name
- Ranked #11,495 in 1982
- 5 female births in 1982
- Peak: 1956 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lonny leans strongly male. 4,505 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 151 female bearers (3.2%).
Popularity
Lonny: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lonny from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,793 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
Lonny 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 Lonny during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lonnys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. California, Texas, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Lonny, while South Carolina, Montana, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 118 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lonny
The given name Lonny is an English diminutive form of the name Lon, which itself is a shortened version of the name Lon. The name Lon is believed to have originated from the Old English word "lond," meaning "land" or "territory."
Lonny is primarily an American name that gained popularity in the 20th century. It is considered a unisex name, though it is more commonly used as a masculine name. The earliest recorded use of the name Lonny dates back to the late 19th century.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Lonny was Lonny Fagan, an American professional baseball player who was born in 1889 and played for various teams in the early 20th century, including the New York Giants and the Boston Braves.
Another notable figure named Lonny was Lonny Chapman, an American actor and director who was born in 1920 and appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout his career, including roles in "The Fugitive" and "Gunsmoke."
In more recent history, Lonny Price is an American actor, director, and choreographer who has worked extensively on Broadway. He was born in 1959 and has directed acclaimed productions such as "Sunset Boulevard" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
Lonny Ng is a Canadian actor and filmmaker of Chinese descent, born in 1979. He is known for his roles in films like "Godzilla" and "The Man with the Iron Fists," as well as his work as a director and producer.
Lonny Baxter is an American former professional basketball player who was born in 1979. He played in the NBA for several teams, including the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Hornets, and had a successful college career at the University of Maryland.
People
Lonny + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lonny as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lonny: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lonny?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,986 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lonny 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 68,743 US residents.
Is Lonny a common name?
We classify Lonny as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,408 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lonny most popular?
The single biggest year for Lonny was 1957, when 213 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lonny is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lonny in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,651 people with the name Lonny, or 1.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,132 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 Lonny 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 Lonny?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lonny leans strongly male. 4,505 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 151 female bearers (3.2%). 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 Lonny?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonny is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Lonny most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lonny in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.8% (3,942 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 Lonny in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lonny a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Lonny in the SSA data are male. 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 Lonny still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lonny 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 Lonny 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 Lonny?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.