Ona
Feminine
Ona is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 7,939 girls against 92 boys since 1880.
Ona is at least three names at once: the Irish Úna, the Lithuanian form of Anna, and a short American name of exactly the shape the 1880s favored. The registers carry all three without distinguishing them.
How old is the name Ona?
Ona was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ona alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 2,300 people named Ona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ona most popular?
Ona peaked in 1893, reaching #300 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 5,422 places below that high. See the whole 1893 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Úna to Ona
The story of Ona
Úna was a common name in medieval Ireland and was anglicized as Oona, Una and Ona. Separately, Lithuanian and Latvian emigration brought Ona as the ordinary form of Anna. And separately again, American registers of the 1880s are full of short vowel-heavy names — Ora, Ola, Ona, Ida — that owe nothing to either. Ona peaked around 1890.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The Irish Úna is usually connected to a word for lamb or to uan, 'famine' — neither securely. The Lithuanian Ona is the standard form of Anna, from the Hebrew channah, 'grace'. A third route is simply the -ona ending that nineteenth-century American naming used freely. Nothing settles which applies.
How the name formed
- Úna
- Ona
Related forms: Úna · Ona · Oona
Pronouncing Ona
OH-nuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Irish Úna is closer to OO-nuh, with a longer first vowel.
Nicknames for Ona
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1916185 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #300reached in 1893
- Change vs 2022
- −25.0%21 in 2025, from 28
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ona in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Úna in Irish — related form
- Ona in Lithuanian — same name
- Oona in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Onas among us
people named Ona are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Ona
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ona
- #5722
- Ona on the 2025 chart
- #865
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ona went to 21 girls in 2025, but Oona and Onna are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 95, which makes it the 865th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,857 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 16,919 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Ona itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ona sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Ona beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ona in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three separate living traditions can claim it — Irish, Lithuanian and American.
- Three letters, two syllables, and easy for a very young child to write.
- It is genuinely rare now while being entirely traditional.
- The origins are unrelated, so the name cannot promise a single meaning.
- The Irish and English pronunciations differ in the first vowel.
- It is strongly period-coded to the late nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Ona
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Onas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Ona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ona?
- Ona is one of 3 recorded spellings. Oona is the more common one — 62 births in 2025 against 21 for Ona.
- How popular is the name Ona in 2025?
- Ona ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ona?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Ona — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ona with classmates?
- Ona will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ona
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ona? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ona and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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