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Boy · Ancient Greek
Onesimus
Say it: oh-NES-ih-mus
Meaning
Greek onēsimos, 'useful, profitable'; Paul plays on the meaning in Philemon 11.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Found occasionally in colonial New England, and as Onésime in French and Quebec families.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 50 babies given this name since 1982
- At its height in 1982, about 1 in 201,700 boys
- 7 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
Used by
The family of the name
| French | Onésime |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Onésimo |
| Italian | Onesimo |
| German | Onesimus |
| Greek | Onisimos |
Famous bearers
- Onesimus, runaway slave in Paul's letter to Philemon
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Colonial records of the Americas
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.