Joan
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 188,263 living Americans carry the first name Joan. It is a predominantly female name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Joan today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joan births was 1932 (21,132 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joan. 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 Joan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Joan is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 7,469 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Joan is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Joans were born before 1964.
- • Compared to the 1930s, recent registration numbers for Joan have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
188K
~ 1 in 1,821 Americans
Peak year
1932
21,132 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,013
Tracked since 1880
Census
Joan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 306,622 people with the first name Joan, which placed it at #165 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
#165
National first-name rank
People counted
307K
306,622 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
101.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joan is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Joan 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 Joan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.5% · 268,191
- Black or African American5.7% · 17,521
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 11,125
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 5,315
- Two or more races1.2% · 3,554
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 916
Gender
Gender distribution for Joan
Joan leans heavily female at 98.5% of total registrations, but 7,469 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Joan as a male name
- Ranked #1,013 in 2024
- 220 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (221 births)
Joan as a female name
- Ranked #1,238 in 2024
- 188 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1932 (21,044 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joan leans strongly female. 296,830 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 9,797 male bearers (3.2%).
Popularity
Joan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joan from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 174,219 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joan 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 Joan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Joan, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9,430 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joan
The given name Joan has its roots in the Greek language, originating from the name Ioanna, a feminine form of the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "God is gracious." The name gained popularity in the early Christian era, around the 4th century AD.
In its earliest form, Joan was spelled as "Iohanna" in Greek, which later evolved into the Latin "Ioanna" and eventually the English "Joan." The name spread across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in England, France, and Spain.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Joan can be found in the Bible's New Testament, where it appears as "Joanna," referring to one of the women who followed Jesus Christ and witnessed his resurrection.
Throughout history, several notable figures bore the name Joan. Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the famous French heroine and Catholic saint, is perhaps one of the most renowned bearers of the name. Her bravery and unwavering faith during the Hundred Years' War made her an iconic figure in French history.
Another famous Joan was Queen Joan I of Navarre (1273-1305), also known as Joan I of France. She was a powerful monarch who ruled the Kingdom of Navarre and contested the French throne during the late 13th century.
In literature, Joan is the central character in George Bernard Shaw's famous play "Saint Joan," which portrays the life and trial of Joan of Arc. The play was first performed in 1923 and has since become a classic in the English theatrical canon.
The name Joan also appears in religious and historical texts, such as the 14th-century "Book of Margery Kempe," one of the earliest autobiographical writings in English, which mentions a woman named Joan Warde.
Other notable Joans throughout history include Joan Baez (born 1941), an American singer-songwriter and activist known for her involvement in the civil rights and anti-war movements, and Joan Miró (1893-1983), a Spanish painter and sculptor who was a pioneer of surrealism and abstract art.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Joan
People
Joan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joan 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
Joan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 188,263 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joan 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 1,821 US residents.
Is Joan a common name?
We classify Joan as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 488,485 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joan most popular?
The single biggest year for Joan was 1932, when 21,132 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joan is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 306,622 people with the name Joan, or 101.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #165 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 Joan 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 Joan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joan leans strongly female. 296,830 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 9,797 male bearers (3.2%). 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 Joan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joan is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Joan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.5% (268,191 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 Joan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joan a female name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Joan 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 Joan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joan 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 Joan 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 Joan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.