Ontario
Masculine · “Beautiful water”
Ontario is a lake, a province and a word from a language that was spoken around that lake by people who were forced out of the region within a century of being asked what they called it.
How old is the name Ontario?
Ontario first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Ontario alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 800 people named Ontario are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ontario most popular?
Ontario peaked in 1973, reaching #1928 nationally. See the whole 1973 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Ontario
The province is named after the lake, the lake was named by the people who lived on it, and the recording was done by Europeans who spelled what they heard with French conventions and did not always ask twice. That is the origin of nearly every indigenous place name on the North American map, and it is why so many of them have two or three competing meanings in the reference books: the sound survived the transcription and the sense frequently did not. What makes this one slightly unusual is its size. A word from a language with very few speakers left now names a province of fifteen million people, a great lake, a county in California, and a street in most Canadian cities.
Meaningscholars disagree
Beautiful water, or a great lake
The word is Iroquoian and the two readings offered — beautiful water, and something like a great lake or a large body of water — are both defended, with the second now generally preferred. The word was recorded by French speakers writing an unfamiliar language and the uncertainty starts there.
Pronouncing Ontario
on-TAIR-ee-oh
Four syllables with the stress on the second.
Nicknames for Ontario
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
- 1967
- Most boys named
- 199135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1928reached in 1973
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%7 in 2024, from 7
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.
Ontarios among us
people named Ontario are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Ontario sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a real place with a documented history rather than an invented sound.
- It is read correctly on sight by every American.
- It shortens to forms that sound entirely current.
- It is a province and a lake before it is a person, for almost everybody.
- Four syllables will be cut down in any classroom.
- The meaning is genuinely contested and the transcription is the reason.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Ontario to the vote.
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What they receive
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Ontario
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Ontarios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Ontario are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ontario in 2025?
- Ontario is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Ontario with classmates?
- Ontario will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More O names
The most-given names starting with O, all years combined.
Oliver#3 · Owen#31 · Oscar#223 · Omar#260 · Otis#652 · Orlando#871 · Otto#277 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ontario? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ontario and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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