Latifah vs Latonya
American parents have registered 21,824 Latonyas since 1880, against 1,476 Latifahs. But in 2025 it was Latifah that was commoner, 6 babies to fewer than five.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Latifah Latonya
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 74 years in which either name was published, Latonya for 61 years and Latifah for 13 years. The lead changed hands 11 times.
Side by side
| Latifah | Latonya | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,476 | 21,824 |
| Most in one year | 300 | 1,296 |
| Babies in 2025 | 6 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 1,400 | 21,000 |
| Median age today | 34 | 49 |
| Peak year | 1990 | 1974 |
| Best rank | 701st girls | 197th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 13,208th | unranked |
| First recorded | 1974 | 1951 |
| Girls / boys | 1,476 / 0 | 21,757 / 67 |
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 Latonyas alive today are over 49; half the Latifahs are over 34. That is 15 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Latifah New Jersey (4.5×), Pennsylvania (3.8×), South Carolina (3.6×)
- Latonya the District of Columbia (4.2×), Mississippi (3.8×), Alabama (3.4×)
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: Latifah and Latonya.