Humanverse

Oneil vs Onesimo

American parents have registered 1,774 Oneils since 1880, against 594 Onesimos. Oneil is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Oneil against Onesimo, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Oneil 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 116 years in which either name was published, Oneil for 110 years and Onesimo for 6 years. The lead changed hands 12 times.

6 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Oneil Onesimo
Total US births 1,774594
Most in one year 4316
Babies in 2025 7under 5
Estimated living today 1,000400
Median age today 3440
Peak year 19241982
Best rank 1,169th boys2,831st boys
Rank in 2025 9,714thunranked
First recorded 18921917
Girls / boys 17 / 1,7570 / 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 Onesimos alive today are over 40; half the Oneils are over 34. That is 6 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: Oneil and Onesimo.