Sione
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Sione is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,504 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Sione is the Tongan form of John, and it is among the most-used men's names in Tonga and Samoa. The name behind it has traveled further than almost any other in history.
How old is the name Sione?
Sione first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Sione alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,500 people named Sione are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sione most popular?
Sione peaked in 1984, reaching #1933 nationally. Today it ranks #3450, 1,517 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Sione
The story of Sione
Christian missionaries reached Tonga in the early nineteenth century, and the biblical names came with them — reshaped, as they had to be, to fit a language with fifteen consonants. John became Sione, James became Siaosi, Peter became Pita. These are now thoroughly Tongan names rather than borrowed ones. Sione reaches American records with Tongan families, in California, Utah and Hawaii above all.
Meaning
God is gracious
From Hebrew Yohanan through Latin Iohannes; Polynesian languages have a small consonant inventory and no j, so missionaries rendered the name with the sounds available, giving Sione in Tongan and Ioane in Samoan and Hawaiian.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Iohannes
- Sione
Related forms: Ioane · Keoni · Hone · John
Pronouncing Sione
see-OH-neh
Three syllables with every vowel sounded, as in Tongan. Americans often say see-OWN.
Nicknames for Sione
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 201751 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1933reached in 1984
- Change vs 2024
- +17.9%33 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.
Sione in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ioane in Samoan — same name
- Keoni in Hawaiian — same name
- Hone in Maori — same name
- John in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Utah, Hawaii.
Siones among us
people named Sione are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 51,760 born in 2025 was named Sione
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Socorro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sione's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Socorro climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Socorro's path sketches the road Sione is walking now.
Sione 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
Where Sione is headed
Sione should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sione beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sione in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning inherited from one of the most-used names in human history.
- Very widely used in Tonga, so it has a real community that knows it exactly.
- Open vowels make it easy to say once the syllable count is known.
- Americans reduce the three syllables to two, which changes the name.
- The final e is silent to English readers and is not silent in Tongan.
- Outside the Pacific Islander community it needs explaining every time.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Sione
Masculine · #3450 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Siones are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Sione are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sione in 2025?
- Sione ranks #3450 among US boy names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sione?
- About 1 in every 51,760 US boys born in 2025 was named Sione — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sione with classmates?
- Sione will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sione
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sabastian#3450 · Luc#3450 · Deshaun#3450 · Trayvon#3450 · Blade#3450 · Oz#3450 · Josiyah#3450 · Fausto#3450
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sione? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sione and another name?
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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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