Joh
Joh is a masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Jehovah is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 370 living Americans carry the first name Joh. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joh today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joh births was 1982 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joh. 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
370
~ 1 in 926,363 Americans
Peak year
1982
21 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
1990 SSA rank
#7,582
Tracked since 1949
Census
Joh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,177 people with the first name Joh, which placed it at #11,049 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
#11,049
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,177 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joh is White at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Black (10.7%) and Hispanic (7.6%). 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 Joh 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 Joh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.1% · 884
- Black or African American10.7% · 126
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 90
- Two or more races3.4% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Joh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joh from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 151 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joh 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 Joh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Johs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Joh
The name Joh is a shortened form of the masculine given name John, which has its origins in the Hebrew name Yohanan or Yochanan. This name can be traced back to the Old Testament and means "Yahweh is gracious" or "Yahweh has been merciful."
The name John is derived from the ancient Greek form Ioannes, which was a translation of the Hebrew name. It gained widespread popularity during the Christian era due to its association with John the Baptist and John the Apostle, two prominent figures in the New Testament.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joh can be found in medieval European documents, where it was often used as a shortened form of John. This variant was particularly common in Germanic and Scandinavian regions, where names were often shortened for convenience or familiarity.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Joh. One of the earliest was Joh Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a Czech philosopher, pedagogue, and theologian who is considered the father of modern education.
Another prominent figure was Joh Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), the renowned German composer and organist who composed some of the most celebrated works in the Baroque era, including the Brandenburg Concertos and the St. Matthew Passion.
In the realm of literature, Joh Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German writer and statesman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest figures in German literature. His most famous works include the tragic play "Faust" and the bildungsroman "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship."
In the field of science, Joh Kepler (1571-1630) was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer who made significant contributions to the Scientific Revolution. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion and his support for the heliocentric model of the solar system.
Lastly, Joh Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher and physician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment period. His works on empiricism, political philosophy, and religious toleration had a profound impact on the development of modern Western thought.
People
Joh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joh 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
Joh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 370 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joh 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 926,363 US residents.
Is Joh a common name?
We classify Joh as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 407 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joh most popular?
The single biggest year for Joh was 1982, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joh is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,177 people with the name Joh, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,049 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 Joh 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 Joh?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joh leans strongly male. 1,141 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 41 female bearers (3.5%). 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 Joh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joh is White at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Black (10.7%) and Hispanic (7.6%). 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 Joh most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.1% (884 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 Joh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joh a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joh 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 Joh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joh 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 Joh 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 Americans are named Joh?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Joh at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.