Humanverse

Lona vs Lonnetta

American parents have registered 10,924 Lonas since 1880, against 61 Lonnettas. Lona is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lona against Lonnetta, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lona Lonnetta

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

Lona 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 1980, when Lona had 45 and Lonnetta had 8.

Side by side

  Lona Lonnetta
Total US births 10,92461
Most in one year 1989
Babies in 2025 12under 5
Estimated living today 4,20060
Median age today 6555
Peak year 19181954
Best rank 481st girls3,967th girls
Rank in 2025 8,362ndunranked
First recorded 18801954
Girls / boys 10,907 / 1761 / 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 Lonas alive today are over 65; half the Lonnettas are over 55. That is 10 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: Lona and Lonnetta.