Humanverse

Jonas vs Jonetta

American parents have registered 28,588 Jonases since 1880, against 901 Jonettas. Jonas is still ahead, with 476 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jonas against Jonetta, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jonas Jonetta

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

Jonas has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1961, when Jonas had 43 and Jonetta had 27.

Side by side

  Jonas Jonetta
Total US births 28,588901
Most in one year 1,25631
Babies in 2025 476under 5
Estimated living today 25,000770
Median age today 1853
Peak year 20081979
Best rank 273rd boys2,795th girls
Rank in 2025 599thunranked
First recorded 18801931
Girls / boys 28 / 28,560901 / 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 Jonettas alive today are over 53; half the Jonases are over 18. That is 35 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: Jonas and Jonetta.