Tonya

Where Tonya comes from

Phonetic rendering of Russian То́ня (Tónja), an informal pet form of Антони́на (Antonína, “Antonina”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Tonya
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1923
    First appearance
    #3,971 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1970
    Tonya Harding born
    American figure skater
  3. 1973
    Peak, #36
    7,184 babies named Tonya — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1977
    Tonya Verbeek born
    Olympic wrestler
  5. 1979
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #86.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given names Antonina and Antonia, from Russian
Namesakes
  • Tonya Harding · American figure skater, born 1970
  • Tonya Verbeek · Olympic wrestler, born 1977
  • Tonya Pinkins · actress, singer, writer, activist, author, born 1962
  • Tonya Williams · Canadian actress, producer, and activist, born 1958
  • Tonya Kinzinger · American actress, born 1968

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.