Humanverse

Roney vs Ronnie

American parents have registered 191,119 Ronnies since 1880, against 888 Roneys. Ronnie is still ahead, with 317 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Roney against Ronnie, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Roney Ronnie

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 120 years in which either name was published, Ronnie for 119 years and Roney for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Roney Ronnie
Total US births 888191,119
Most in one year 286,382
Babies in 2025 under 5317
Estimated living today 590133,000
Median age today 5763
Peak year 19501947
Best rank 1,364th boys61st boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,064th
First recorded 18931902
Girls / boys 5 / 8838,193 / 182,926

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 Ronnies alive today are over 63; half the Roneys are over 57. That is 6 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: Roney and Ronnie.