Onie
A French diminutive meaning "gift".
Name Census estimates that about 189 living Americans carry the first name Onie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Onie today is around 81 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Onie births was 1918 (70 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Onie. 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 Onie is about 81 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Onies were born before 1955.
People living today
189
~ 1 in 1,813,515 Americans
Peak year
1918
70 babies that year
Average age
81
years old
1955 SSA rank
#3,779
Tracked since 1880
Census
Onie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 377 people with the first name Onie, which placed it at #25,213 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
#25,213
National first-name rank
People counted
377
377 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Onie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Onie is White at 52.0%. The next largest groups are Black (35.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Onie 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 Onie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.0% · 196
- Black or African American35.3% · 133
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 15
- Two or more races3.7% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Onie
Onie leans heavily female at 86.6% of total registrations, but 277 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Onie as a male name
- Ranked #3,779 in 1955
- 6 male births in 1955
- Peak: 1920 (20 births)
Onie as a female name
- Ranked #13,285 in 1997
- 6 female births in 1997
- Peak: 1918 (64 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Onie on both sides of the split. Of the 379 people counted with this name, 107 were male (28.2%) and 272 were female (71.8%).
Popularity
Onie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Onie from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 488 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Onie 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 Onie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Onies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Texas, Mississippi, Georgia recorded the most babies named Onie, while Virginia, Florida, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Onie
The given name Onie has its roots in the Old English language, tracing back to the 9th century AD. It is a diminutive form of the name Onnion, which itself derives from the Old English word "onne," meaning "courage" or "valiant." The name was particularly prevalent in the Anglo-Saxon regions of England during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Onie can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. In this historical document, an individual named Onie is listed as a landholder in the county of Somerset.
Throughout the centuries, the name Onie has been associated with several notable figures. In the 13th century, Onie of Thorney was a renowned English chronicler and historian who documented the events of his time. His writings provided valuable insights into the social and political climate of medieval England.
During the Renaissance period, Onie Bellini (1470-1523) was an Italian painter from the Venetian school, known for his skillful portraiture and religious works. His artistic contributions left a lasting impact on the development of Italian Renaissance art.
In the 18th century, Onie Wheatley (1753-1784) emerged as an influential African-American poet and author. Born into slavery in Boston, Massachusetts, she became one of the first published African-American women, and her works played a significant role in challenging stereotypes and promoting the cause of abolition.
Another notable figure bearing the name Onie was Onie Wilcox (1839-1919), an American soldier and politician. He served as a Union Army officer during the American Civil War and later became a prominent figure in the Republican Party, holding various political offices in Ohio.
Onie Talbot (1865-1938) was a pioneering American social worker and activist who dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of impoverished women and children. She founded the Talbot House, a settlement house in Chicago, and worked tirelessly to promote social reforms and provide essential services to underprivileged communities.
People
Onie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Onie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Onie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Onie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 189 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Onie 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 1,813,515 US residents.
Is Onie a common name?
We classify Onie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,063 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Onie most popular?
The single biggest year for Onie was 1918, when 70 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Onie is about 81 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Onie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 377 people with the name Onie, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,213 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 Onie 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 Onie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Onie on both sides of the split. Of the 379 people counted with this name, 107 were male (28.2%) and 272 were female (71.8%). 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 Onie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Onie is White at 52.0%. The next largest groups are Black (35.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Onie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Onie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.0% (196 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 Onie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Onie a female name?
Yes, 86.6% of people registered as Onie 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 Onie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Onie 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 Onie 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 Onie?
See how many people have the name Onie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.