Tonja
Tonja was last recorded in 2005, when 6 babies were given it; 6,994 Americans have been recorded with it between 1940 and 2005 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,290 Americans named Tonja and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 57 years old and half are between 53 and 61.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tonja by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tonja mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tonja is “a female given name, variant of Tonya”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tonja?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,300, in 2005; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
512 babies in 1967, the peak
Tonja peaked in 1967, when 512 girls were given it, #408 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 6 | #16,300 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 11 | #9,429 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 10 | #9,822 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 8 | #11,313 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 7 | #12,337 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,995 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 6 | #13,404 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 9 | #9,502 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,634 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,675 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 24 | #4,369 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 15 | #6,229 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 24 | #4,221 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 24 | #4,110 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 28 | #3,470 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 36 | #2,777 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 22 | #3,882 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 38 | #2,593 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 39 | #2,464 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 41 | #2,356 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 65 | #1,733 | 0.04 |
| 1981 | 68 | #1,698 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 74 | #1,581 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 101 | #1,268 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 95 | #1,288 | 0.06 |
| 1977 | 122 | #1,072 | 0.08 |
| 1976 | 144 | #915 | 0.10 |
| 1975 | 185 | #769 | 0.13 |
| 1974 | 227 | #667 | 0.15 |
| 1973 | 317 | #530 | 0.22 |
| 1972 | 386 | #470 | 0.25 |
| 1971 | 386 | #495 | 0.23 |
| 1970 | 451 | #464 | 0.26 |
| 1969 | 471 | #444 | 0.28 |
| 1968 | 455 | #448 | 0.28 |
| 1967 | 512 | #408 | 0.31 |
| 1966 | 405 | #472 | 0.24 |
| 1965 | 358 | #502 | 0.20 |
| 1964 | 298 | #570 | 0.16 |
| 1963 | 268 | #616 | 0.14 |
| 1962 | 248 | #643 | 0.13 |
| 1961 | 195 | #747 | 0.10 |
| 1960 | 142 | #873 | 0.07 |
| 1959 | 122 | #957 | 0.06 |
| 1958 | 90 | #1,118 | 0.04 |
| 1957 | 63 | #1,341 | 0.03 |
| 1956 | 66 | #1,285 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 43 | #1,572 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 39 | #1,645 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 35 | #1,700 | 0.02 |
| 1952 | 34 | #1,707 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 23 | #2,106 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 18 | #2,427 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 22 | #2,128 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 16 | #2,583 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 17 | #2,525 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 15 | #2,588 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 8 | #3,657 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 6 | #4,531 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 8 | #3,783 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 7 | #4,090 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,972 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tonja a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tonja has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 62 years of records.
Girls and boys named Tonja: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tonja, and how old are they?
6,290 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 90% of the 6,994 Americans ever recorded as Tonja. The median Tonja alive today is 57 years old; half are between 53 and 61.
The 2020 Census counted 5,679 people named Tonja (5,660 women and girls, 19 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,495 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 18 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,470 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 4,310 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 448 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 48 |
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 Tonja born?
The states with the most babies named Tonja are Texas, California and Ohio, with 27% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 671 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| California | 401 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 325 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 284 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Michigan | 265 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 252 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Alabama | 238 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| North Carolina | 221 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Indiana | 219 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Florida | 215 | not ranked | 1.0× |
Where Tonja is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tonja is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1940 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 Tonja 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 7,515 babies since 1880, Tonja is the most given (93% of them).
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 Tonja
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 Tonja and names like it
- Compare Tonja and TonjiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sTonja peaked in 1967.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tonja since 1910.
- The top names of 1967The year the most babies were named Tonja.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Tonja alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with TMost given first.