Humanverse

Mona vs Monita

American parents have registered 45,818 Monas since 1880, against 505 Monitas. Mona is still ahead, with 61 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mona Monita

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

Mona 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 1982, when Mona had 165 and Monita had 17.

Side by side

  Mona Monita
Total US births 45,818505
Most in one year 1,23119
Babies in 2025 61under 5
Estimated living today 29,000370
Median age today 6456
Peak year 19571961
Best rank 242nd girls2,839th girls
Rank in 2025 2,778thunranked
First recorded 18801914
Girls / boys 45,787 / 31505 / 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 Monas alive today are over 64; half the Monitas are over 56. That is 8 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: Mona and Monita.