Toni
A diminutive of the name Antonia or Antonio, meaning "priceless one".
Name Census estimates that about 81,000 living Americans carry the first name Toni. It is a predominantly female name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Toni today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Toni births was 1960 (2,929 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Toni. 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 Toni with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Toni is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,555 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Toni have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
81K
~ 1 in 4,232 Americans
Peak year
1960
2,929 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,184
Tracked since 1907
Census
Toni in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 81,028 people with the first name Toni, which placed it at #651 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
#651
National first-name rank
People counted
81K
81,028 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
26.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Toni
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Toni is White at 69.7%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Hispanic (7.2%). 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 Toni 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 Toni at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.7% · 56,489
- Black or African American17.3% · 13,992
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 5,794
- Two or more races3.5% · 2,858
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 995
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 900
Gender
Gender distribution for Toni
Toni leans heavily female at 98.5% of total registrations, but 1,555 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Toni as a male name
- Ranked #7,188 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1975 (35 births)
Toni as a female name
- Ranked #2,184 in 2024
- 87 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (2,897 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Toni leans strongly female. 79,247 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 1,779 male bearers (2.2%).
Popularity
Toni: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Toni from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 25,090 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
Toni 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 Toni during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Tonis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Toni, while Vermont, Alaska, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,896 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Toni
The name Toni has its roots in the Latin language and is derived from the name Antonius, which itself is believed to have originated from the Etruscan name Antonu. The name Antonius was a prominent Roman family name, with the first recorded use dating back to the 1st century BC.
Toni is a diminutive form of the name Antonius, and its earliest recorded use can be traced back to the Middle Ages in various European regions. In Italy, Toni was a common nickname for Antonio, while in Germany and other Germanic regions, it was used as a diminutive for Anton.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Toni was Toni de Vivaldi, an Italian composer and violinist who lived from 1678 to 1741. He was a contemporary of the renowned composer Antonio Vivaldi and is known for his contributions to the development of the concerto grosso form.
In the literary world, Toni Morrison, born in 1931, was an American novelist, essayist, and professor who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her novels, such as "Beloved" and "The Bluest Eye," explored the experiences of African Americans and addressed themes of race, identity, and discrimination.
Toni Kroos, born in 1990, is a German professional football player who has played for clubs like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. He is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation and has won numerous titles, including the FIFA World Cup in 2014 with the German national team.
In the world of art, Toni Frissell, who lived from 1907 to 1988, was an American photographer renowned for her fashion photography and portraits. Her work appeared in publications like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and she was among the first women to be hired as a staff photographer for Life magazine.
Toni Cade Bambara, an African American writer, activist, and filmmaker, lived from 1939 to 1995. Her works, such as the short story collection "Gorilla, My Love," explored themes of racial injustice, feminism, and social change, and she was a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Toni
People
Toni + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Toni 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
Toni: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Toni?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 81,000 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Toni 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 4,232 US residents.
Is Toni a common name?
We classify Toni as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 101,670 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Toni most popular?
The single biggest year for Toni was 1960, when 2,929 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Toni is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Toni in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 81,028 people with the name Toni, or 26.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #651 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 Toni 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 Toni?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Toni leans strongly female. 79,247 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 1,779 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Toni?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Toni is White at 69.7%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Hispanic (7.2%). 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 Toni most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Toni in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.7% (56,489 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 Toni in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Toni a female name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Toni 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 Toni still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Toni 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 Toni 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 Toni?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.