Toni
Masculine
Toni is given to girls far more often — 100,198 girls against 1,564 boys since 1880. See Toni as a girl name
Toni is a man's name in Italy and a woman's name in America, and the letters are identical. The sex of a name is a fact about a language, not about the spelling, and Toni is one of the cleanest demonstrations of that in the whole American record.
How old is the name Toni?
Toni first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Toni alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 1,300 people named Toni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Toni most popular?
Toni peaked in 1966, reaching #1345 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,565 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Where it comes from
From Antonius to Toni
The story of Toni
Names carry sex the way words carry gender: by convention within a language, learned by exposure, and not recoverable from the letters. Toni is male in Italy, Croatia, Germany and Finland, and female in the United States and Britain. Andrea is a man's name in Italy and a woman's in English. Jean is a man in France and a woman in Scotland. Nicola is a man in Italy and a woman in England. Simone, Michele and Daniele are all Italian men. In every case the form is inherited from a masculine Latin or Greek original and was later reinterpreted by English speakers as feminine, usually because the final vowel matched the English pattern for women's names. The American record shows the transition happening: a small male Toni through the mid-century, and a much larger female one afterwards, using exactly the same four letters.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Toni is a short form of Antonio and Anton in Italian, German and the Slavic languages, where it is male, and of Antonia, Antoinette and Toinette in English, where it is female. Antonius, the source in every case, is a Roman clan name of genuinely unknown meaning, probably Etruscan. The American male peak is 1966; the female use is far larger and later.
How the name formed
- Antonius
- Antonio
- Toni
Related forms: Toni · Toni · Tony
Pronouncing Toni
TOH-nee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Toni and Tony are homophones; the -i spelling is the Italian and German one and the -y spelling the English one.
Nicknames for Toni
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 197734 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1345reached in 1966
- Change vs 2023
- −20.0%8 in 2025, from 10
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.
Toni in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Toni in Italian — same name
- Toni in German — same name
- Tony in English — spelling variant
Tonis among us
people named Toni are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Toni
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Toni
- #8910
- Toni on the 2025 chart
- #612
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Toni went to 8 boys in 2025, but Tony and Tonny are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 339, which makes it the 612th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,298 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 5,039 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 213,510 for Toni 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
The Marvel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Toni's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marvel climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marvel's path sketches the road Toni is walking now.
Toni 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
Toni beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Toni in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, and impossible to mispronounce.
- Antonio and Anthony are both available as formal versions.
- It is a standard male name across much of Europe.
- American readers will assume it is a woman's name.
- Tony is the male spelling in ordinary English use.
- The Roman original has no known meaning.
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What they receive
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Toni
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tonis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Toni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Toni?
- Toni is one of 3 recorded spellings. Tony is the more common one — 325 births in 2025 against 8 for Toni.
- How popular is the name Toni in 2025?
- Toni ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Toni?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Toni — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Toni with classmates?
- Toni will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Toni
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Toni? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Toni and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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