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Jonetta vs Joni

American parents have registered 29,502 Jonis since 1880, against 901 Jonettas. Joni is still ahead, with 124 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jonetta Joni

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

Of the 96 years in which either name was published, Joni for 94 years and Jonetta for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Jonetta Joni
Total US births 90129,502
Most in one year 311,584
Babies in 2025 under 5124
Estimated living today 77026,000
Median age today 5360
Peak year 19791956
Best rank 2,795th girls204th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,796th
First recorded 19311930
Girls / boys 901 / 028,815 / 687

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 Jonis alive today are over 60; half the Jonettas are over 53. That is 7 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: Jonetta and Joni.