Giavanni
An Italian masculine name derived from the Hebrew "Yohanan" meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 423 living Americans carry the first name Giavanni. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Giavanni today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Giavanni births was 2024 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Giavanni. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
423
~ 1 in 810,294 Americans
Peak year
2024
23 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2022 SSA rank
#5,483
Tracked since 1991
Census
Giavanni in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 306 people with the first name Giavanni, which placed it at #29,088 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#29,088
National first-name rank
People counted
306
306 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Giavanni
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giavanni is Black at 42.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.5%) and White (20.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Giavanni described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Giavanni at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.8% · 131
- Hispanic or Latino23.5% · 72
- White20.6% · 63
- Two or more races11.1% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Giavanni
Giavanni is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 428 total registrations, 112 (26.2%) were male and 316 (73.8%) were female.
Giavanni as a male name
- Ranked #12,991 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2000 (9 births)
Giavanni as a female name
- Ranked #5,483 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Giavanni on both sides of the split. Of the 306 people counted with this name, 113 were male (36.9%) and 193 were female (63.1%).
Popularity
Giavanni: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Giavanni from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 140 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Giavanni remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Giavanni by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Giavanni during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Giavanni
The given name Giavanni has its origins in the Italian language and dates back to the medieval period. It is a variant spelling of the more common Italian name Giovanni, which is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious."
During the Middle Ages, the name Giavanni was primarily used in regions of Italy, particularly in the northern and central parts of the country. It gained popularity among Catholic families as a way to honor Saint John the Baptist, who played a significant role in Christian tradition.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Giavanni can be found in the 13th-century literary work "Divina Commedia" (The Divine Comedy) by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In this epic poem, Dante mentions a character named Giavanni Gualberto, who was a real-life figure and the founder of the Vallumbrosan monastic order.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Giavanni. One prominent figure was Giavanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), an Italian writer best known for his masterpiece "The Decameron," a collection of novellas that provided a unique glimpse into the social and cultural landscape of 14th-century Italy.
Another famous bearer of the name was Giavanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), an Italian Renaissance composer widely regarded as the greatest master of the polyphonic style of music composition. His works, particularly his sacred music, had a profound influence on the development of Western classical music.
In the field of art, Giavanni Bellini (1430-1516) was a celebrated Venetian Renaissance painter known for his groundbreaking contributions to the development of Venetian painting. His works, such as the iconic "Pieta" and "The Feast of the Gods," are considered masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance period.
Giavanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was an Italian artist renowned for his etchings of ancient Roman ruins and architectural fantasies. His intricate and detailed prints had a significant impact on the neoclassical and romantic movements in art and architecture.
Finally, Giavanni Verga (1840-1922) was an influential Italian writer and one of the leading figures of the verismo literary movement. His novels and short stories, such as "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Mastro Don Gesualdo," provided a realistic and poignant portrayal of the struggles and hardships faced by the rural working class in Sicily.
People
Giavanni + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Giavanni as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Giavanni: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Giavanni?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 423 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Giavanni going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 810,294 US residents.
Is Giavanni a common name?
We classify Giavanni as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 428 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Giavanni most popular?
The single biggest year for Giavanni was 2024, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Giavanni is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Giavanni in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 306 people with the name Giavanni, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,088 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Giavanni in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Giavanni?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Giavanni on both sides of the split. Of the 306 people counted with this name, 113 were male (36.9%) and 193 were female (63.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Giavanni?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giavanni is Black at 42.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.5%) and White (20.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Giavanni most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Giavanni in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.8% (131 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Giavanni in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Giavanni a female name?
Yes, 73.8% of people registered as Giavanni in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Giavanni still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Giavanni in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Giavanni can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Giavanni?
Want to know how many people share the name Giavanni? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.