Javaughn
Masculine name of Irish origin meaning "John the son of Vaughan".
Name Census estimates that about 922 living Americans carry the first name Javaughn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Javaughn today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Javaughn births was 1997 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Javaughn. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Javaughn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
922
~ 1 in 371,751 Americans
Peak year
1997
52 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,985
Tracked since 1973
Census
Javaughn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 798 people with the first name Javaughn, which placed it at #14,688 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
#14,688
National first-name rank
People counted
798
798 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Javaughn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Javaughn is Black at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.6%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Javaughn 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 Javaughn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.1% · 663
- Two or more races7.6% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 36
- White3.4% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Popularity
Javaughn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Javaughn from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 331 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Javaughn 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 Javaughn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Javaughns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, Florida, Michigan recorded the most babies named Javaughn, while Maryland, Georgia, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Javaughn
The name Javaughn is a relatively modern name that appears to have originated in the late 20th century. Its roots can be traced back to the Jamaican Patois language, which is an English-based creole with influences from various West African languages. The name is believed to be a combination of the Hebrew name "Yehova" (a variation of "Yahweh") and the English word "vaughn," which means "little" or "small."
In Jamaican culture, the name Javaughn is often associated with the Rastafarian movement, which emerged in the 1930s and embraced the use of Amharic and Hebrew-inspired names. However, there is no direct historical reference to the name Javaughn in any ancient texts or religious scriptures.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Javaughn appear to be from the late 20th century, particularly in Jamaica and other Caribbean countries with significant Jamaican diaspora populations. One of the earliest notable individuals with the name was Jamaican musician Javaughn, who gained popularity in the 1990s with his reggae and dancehall music.
Throughout history, there have been a few other individuals with the name Javaughn who have gained recognition in various fields. These include:
1. Javaughn Buckley (born 1989), a professional basketball player from Jamaica who has played in several European leagues.
2. Javaughn Gayle (born 1996), a Jamaican sprinter who specializes in the 100 meters and 200 meters events.
3. Javaughn Watson (born 1996), a Jamaican cricketer who has played for the West Indies Under-19 team and various domestic teams in Jamaica.
4. Javaughn Jacobsen (born 1991), a professional soccer player from the U.S. Virgin Islands who has played for several clubs in the United States and the Caribbean.
5. Javaughn Young (born 1992), a Jamaican-American artist and illustrator known for his vibrant and colorful works inspired by Caribbean culture.
While the name Javaughn is not as common as some other names, it has gained popularity in recent decades, particularly among families with Jamaican or Caribbean roots who wish to incorporate elements of their cultural heritage into their children's names.
People
Javaughn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Javaughn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Javaughn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Javaughn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 922 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Javaughn 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 371,751 US residents.
Is Javaughn a common name?
We classify Javaughn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 939 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Javaughn most popular?
The single biggest year for Javaughn was 1997, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Javaughn is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Javaughn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 798 people with the name Javaughn, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,688 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 Javaughn 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 Javaughn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Javaughn leans strongly male. 771 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 33 female bearers (4.1%). 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 Javaughn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Javaughn is Black at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.6%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Javaughn most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Javaughn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.1% (663 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 Javaughn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Javaughn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Javaughn in the SSA data are male. 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 Javaughn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Javaughn 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 Javaughn 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 share the name Javaughn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.