Humanverse

Jon vs Jonica

American parents have registered 169,391 Jons since 1880, against 628 Jonicas. Jon is still ahead, with 246 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jon against Jonica, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jon Jonica

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jon has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1898 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1994, when Jon had 1,033 and Jonica had 22.

Side by side

  Jon Jonica
Total US births 169,391628
Most in one year 4,94123
Babies in 2025 246under 5
Estimated living today 131,000600
Median age today 5640
Peak year 19641982
Best rank 79th boys3,530th girls
Rank in 2025 951stunranked
First recorded 18981957
Girls / boys 1,249 / 168,142628 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jons alive today are over 56; half the Jonicas are over 40. That is 16 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jon and Jonica.