Onita
A feminine Japanese name meaning "beautiful valley".
Name Census estimates that about 408 living Americans carry the first name Onita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Onita today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Onita births was 1925 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Onita. 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 Onita is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Onitas were born before 1967.
People living today
408
~ 1 in 840,084 Americans
Peak year
1925
34 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1981 SSA rank
#5,164
Tracked since 1899
Census
Onita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 567 people with the first name Onita, which placed it at #18,871 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
#18,871
National first-name rank
People counted
567
567 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Onita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Onita is White at 51.7%. The next largest groups are Black (37.0%) and Two or More Races (4.4%). 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 Onita 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 Onita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.7% · 293
- Black or African American37.0% · 210
- Two or more races4.4% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 10
Popularity
Onita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Onita from the 1890s through to the 1980s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 266 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Onita 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 Onita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Onitas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Onita, while Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Onita
The name Onita has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is believed to have been derived from the Greek word "onitos," which means "beneficent" or "benevolent." This suggests that the name may have been given to individuals who were perceived as kind and generous.
One of the earliest documented references to the name Onita can be found in ancient Greek literature, where it was mentioned as the name of a minor goddess associated with fertility and abundance. However, there is limited information about the specific contexts in which the name was used during this period.
The first recorded instances of the name Onita being used as a personal name date back to the Byzantine era, around the 5th to 6th century AD. During this time, the name was primarily found among Greek-speaking populations in the eastern Mediterranean region.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Onita. One of the earliest recorded was Onita of Cyzicus, a Byzantine poet and philosopher who lived in the 6th century AD. Another notable figure was Onita the Younger, a renowned scholar and theologian who lived in the 9th century AD and contributed significantly to the development of Eastern Orthodox theology.
In the medieval period, the name Onita gained some prominence among the nobility and aristocracy of various European regions. One notable example is Onita of Burgundy, a noblewoman who lived in the 12th century and was known for her patronage of the arts and literature.
During the Renaissance, the name Onita was particularly popular in Italy, where it was often associated with artists and intellectuals. One notable figure from this period was Onita Benigni, a celebrated painter and fresco artist who lived in the 16th century and contributed to the decoration of several churches and palaces in Rome.
In more recent times, the name Onita has remained relatively uncommon, but there have been a few notable individuals who have borne it. One example is Onita Tanner, an American author and playwright who lived in the early 20th century and wrote several works exploring themes of feminism and social justice.
People
Onita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Onita 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
Onita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Onita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 408 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Onita 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 840,084 US residents.
Is Onita a common name?
We classify Onita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,162 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Onita most popular?
The single biggest year for Onita was 1925, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Onita is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Onita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 567 people with the name Onita, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,871 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 Onita 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 Onita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Onita appears almost entirely female. Of the 561 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Onita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Onita is White at 51.7%. The next largest groups are Black (37.0%) and Two or More Races (4.4%). 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 Onita most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Onita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.7% (293 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 Onita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Onita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Onita 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 Onita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Onita 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 Onita 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 Onita?
You can see how many Americans are named Onita on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.