Humanverse

Nona vs Nonya

American parents have registered 16,708 Nonas since 1880, against 28 Nonyas. Nona is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nona against Nonya, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nona Nonya

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

Nona 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 1976, when Nona had 46 and Nonya had 21.

Side by side

  Nona Nonya
Total US births 16,70828
Most in one year 36021
Babies in 2025 12under 5
Estimated living today 6,30030
Median age today 7049
Peak year 19501976
Best rank 423rd girls3,287th girls
Rank in 2025 8,362ndunranked
First recorded 18801976
Girls / boys 16,708 / 028 / 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 Nonas alive today are over 70; half the Nonyas are over 49. That is 21 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: Nona and Nonya.