Monika
Monika was given to 18 girls in 2025, #6,477 among girls’ names; 9,810 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,320 Americans named Monika and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 29 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Monika by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Monika mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Monika is “a female given name from Latin.”
A less common spelling of Monica, used since the twentieth century.
/ˈmɒ.nɪ.kə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Monika?
#6,477 among girls’ names, 2025
Monika fell from #3,421 in 2015 to #6,477 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 26.3 to 11.2 per million.
257 babies in 1990, the peak
Monika peaked in 1990, when 257 girls were given it, #784 among girls’ names. The 18 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18 | #6,477 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 13 | #8,283 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 36 | #4,100 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 28 | #4,864 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 24 | #5,353 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 33 | #4,236 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 29 | #4,739 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 33 | #4,314 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 43 | #3,607 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 45 | #3,505 | 0.03 |
Every recorded year (79)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 47 | #3,421 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 49 | #3,305 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 57 | #2,963 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 44 | #3,628 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 63 | #2,788 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 71 | #2,579 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 79 | #2,440 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 99 | #2,070 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 107 | #1,935 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 117 | #1,785 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 107 | #1,829 | 0.06 |
| 2004 | 116 | #1,677 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 99 | #1,868 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 123 | #1,543 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 130 | #1,455 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 151 | #1,284 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 133 | #1,338 | 0.07 |
| 1998 | 224 | #930 | 0.13 |
| 1997 | 246 | #840 | 0.14 |
| 1996 | 257 | #801 | 0.15 |
| 1995 | 238 | #826 | 0.14 |
| 1994 | 203 | #929 | 0.11 |
| 1993 | 254 | #797 | 0.14 |
| 1992 | 216 | #906 | 0.12 |
| 1991 | 252 | #815 | 0.13 |
| 1990 | 257 | #784 | 0.14 |
| 1989 | 221 | #845 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 250 | #753 | 0.14 |
| 1987 | 250 | #724 | 0.14 |
| 1986 | 243 | #733 | 0.14 |
| 1985 | 172 | #922 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 170 | #886 | 0.10 |
| 1983 | 222 | #737 | 0.13 |
| 1982 | 190 | #827 | 0.11 |
| 1981 | 231 | #716 | 0.14 |
| 1980 | 213 | #775 | 0.13 |
| 1979 | 202 | #788 | 0.13 |
| 1978 | 224 | #707 | 0.15 |
| 1977 | 214 | #723 | 0.14 |
| 1976 | 195 | #746 | 0.13 |
| 1975 | 161 | #838 | 0.11 |
| 1974 | 173 | #789 | 0.12 |
| 1973 | 179 | #758 | 0.12 |
| 1972 | 177 | #776 | 0.12 |
| 1971 | 188 | #775 | 0.11 |
| 1970 | 153 | #873 | 0.09 |
| 1969 | 151 | #844 | 0.09 |
| 1968 | 154 | #819 | 0.09 |
| 1967 | 158 | #792 | 0.10 |
| 1966 | 159 | #780 | 0.09 |
| 1965 | 126 | #897 | 0.07 |
| 1964 | 117 | #986 | 0.06 |
| 1963 | 124 | #952 | 0.06 |
| 1962 | 122 | #965 | 0.06 |
| 1961 | 124 | #970 | 0.06 |
| 1960 | 102 | #1,065 | 0.05 |
| 1959 | 81 | #1,187 | 0.04 |
| 1958 | 71 | #1,261 | 0.04 |
| 1957 | 54 | #1,448 | 0.03 |
| 1956 | 48 | #1,542 | 0.02 |
| 1955 | 35 | #1,790 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 35 | #1,756 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 16 | #2,780 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 17 | #2,641 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,911 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 8 | #4,213 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 16 | #2,593 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,789 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,146 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Monika a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Monika has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 79 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Monika: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Monika, and how old are they?
9,320 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 9,810 Americans ever recorded as Monika. The median Monika alive today is 39 years old; half are between 29 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 21,582 people named Monika (21,563 women and girls, 19 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,316 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.3 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 824 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,630 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,530 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,890 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 452 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Monika born?
The states with the most babies named Monika are California, Illinois and New York, with 49% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,469 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 879 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| New York | 833 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Texas | 762 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 337 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 331 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 326 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Florida | 312 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 234 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Washington | 128 | not ranked | 0.7× |
Where Monika is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Monika is most over-represented in Illinois: since 1942 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Monika with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 263,233 babies since 1880, Monika is the second most given (3.7% of them). In 2025 it was given to 18 of their 389 babies (4.6%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Monika
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Monika and names like it
- Compare Monika and MonicaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMonika peaked in 1990.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Monika since 1910.
- Latin namesWiktionary’s origin for Monika: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Monika.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Monika alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with MMost given first.