Humanverse

Oneal vs Onesimo

American parents have registered 3,179 Oneals since 1880, against 594 Onesimos. Oneal is still ahead, with 6 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Oneal against Onesimo, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Oneal Onesimo

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 124 years in which either name was published, Oneal for 119 years and Onesimo for 5 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Oneal Onesimo
Total US births 3,179594
Most in one year 7216
Babies in 2025 6under 5
Estimated living today 1,400400
Median age today 5740
Peak year 19321982
Best rank 802nd boys2,831st boys
Rank in 2025 10,695thunranked
First recorded 18891917
Girls / boys 130 / 3,0490 / 594

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 Oneals alive today are over 57; half the Onesimos are over 40. That is 17 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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