Onesimo

Boys' name

Profitable, useful

Onesimo has been given to 594 babies in the U.S. since 1917. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1982, with 16 recorded.

Babies named Onesimo, 2023

1 in 474,000

Onesimo over time, 1880–2025

Boys

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Onesimo: meaning, origin, and history

Profitable, useful

Ancient Greek

What Onesimo means

Onesimo means “profitable, useful”, associated with onḗsimos.

Origin, language, and formation

Onesimo is used in Italian. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Italian, Onesimo is pronounced /oˈnɛ.zi.mo/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 594 boys were recorded with the name Onesimo between 1917 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 16 in 1982; its best national rank was #2,283 in 1932.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Onesimo?

Onesimo had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023: 1 in 474,000; 7 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only: 1 in 244,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 328,234 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Onesimo sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,234 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Onesimo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Onesimos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Onesimo was born before 1968 — so the typical Onesimo is around 57 today.

Median birth year: 1968; About 57 years old
Biggest decade: 1980s; 11.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 19.0%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 401; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1980s — 11.8% of all recorded uses (70).

Is Onesimo rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1982 (16)
Years since peak: 43; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 36.5% average annual change
Best rank ever: #2,283; 1932

Where Onesimo is used

Across 1910–2025, Onesimo was most concentrated in New Mexico — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 162,384 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1New Mexico1 in 100,000
2Texas1 in 100,000
3California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Onesimo has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Onesimo by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #2,283; 1932
Peak year: 1982; 16 that year
First recorded: 1917
Last recorded: 2023
All-time count: 594
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Onesimo

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Onecimo Cosimo Oneil Oneal Primo Massimo Jeronimo Geronimo Oneill Timo Onesimus Maximo Kimo Mossimo Oney Onel Onell Antimo Maxximo Masimo Aimo Zimo Imo

Sibling names for Onesimo

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Eboni Lyndsay Shamika Afton Tanesha Christopher Kandi Matthew

For a brother

Jamaal Donnell Jerrod Chauncey Leopoldo Jerod Dusty Marques

Explore around Onesimo

Top names of 1982, Onesimo's peak year The 1980s in full Other names that peaked in 1932 Boys' names starting with O