Tonna
Feminine
Tonna is short, easy and undocumented, and the word it sits next to has one of the more concrete origins in the English measuring vocabulary. A ton was a barrel before it was a weight, and ships were measured by how many of them would fit.
How old is the name Tonna?
Tonna first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Tonna alive today was born around 1966, making them about 59 years old. About 700 people named Tonna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tonna most popular?
Tonna peaked in 1966, reaching #2022 nationally. See the whole 1966 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Tonna
A tun was a very large cask, the standard container for shipping wine, and it held a fixed and well-understood amount. When merchants needed to describe how much cargo a ship could carry, they counted tuns, and a vessel's tunnage was literally the number of wine barrels it could stow. Over time the spelling split: the barrel kept the u and the measurement took an o, and the ton became a weight in its own right and stopped having anything to do with wine. Ships are still described by tonnage, and the word is still doing the same job, which is more than most medieval measurements can say. Tonna is not named for a barrel. But it keeps company with a word that is, and that quietly explains why cargo is counted the way it is.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Toni, Antonia and Tonya are the usual suggestions and none is documented. The name may equally have been built from a syllable and an ending, which was ordinary practice in the decades it appears.
Pronouncing Tonna
TAH-nuh
Two syllables with the stress in front and a short first vowel, which is what the doubled n is there to mark.
Nicknames for Tonna
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 196633 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2022reached in 1966
- Change vs 2006
- −16.7%5 in 2008, from 6
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.
Tonnas among us
people named Tonna 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
Tonna 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
- Five letters and two syllables: easy to write and easy for a child to learn to spell.
- Toni comes off it as a short form and needs no explaining anywhere.
- There is nothing in it that any English speaker can get wrong.
- It will be written Tonya, Tona and Tawna by people working from sound alone.
- The English word ton sits inside it, and children notice that kind of thing early.
- No origin is documented, so the meaning question has nothing settled to answer with.
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Tonna
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tonnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Tonna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tonna in 2025?
- Tonna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Tonna with classmates?
- Tonna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tonna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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