NameCensus.
Very Common

John

Masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is gracious".

Roughly 2,941,241 people in the United States go by the first name John, which ranks #21 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named John today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of John births was 1947 (88,524 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to David (2,847,418).

This page is the full Name Census profile for John. 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 John with official rankings and popularity over time.

Key insights

  • • Although John is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 21,740 girls registered with the name since 1880.
  • • Over 2.9 million Americans are estimated to carry the first name John, putting it among the highest-count names in the entire dataset.

People living today

2.9M

~ 1 in 117 Americans

Peak year

1947

88,524 babies that year

Average age

57

years old

2024 SSA rank

#21

Tracked since 1880

Census

John in the 2020 Census

The 2020 Census recorded 3,125,114 people with the first name John, which placed it at #2 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

#2

National first-name rank

People counted

3.1M

3,125,114 in the published race/origin table

Per 100,000

1034.7

People with this name in 2020

Largest reported group

White

82.9% of people with this name

Demographics

Ancestry and ethnicity for John

In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named John is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 John 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 John at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.

  • White82.9% · 2,589,589
  • Black or African American6.3% · 195,759
  • Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 187,148
  • Two or more races2.2% · 69,447
  • Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 67,811
  • American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 15,360

Gender

Gender distribution for John

Out of the 5,196,210 babies given the name John since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.

100% male
Male5,174,470 (99.6%)Female21,740 (0.4%)

John as a male name

  • Ranked #21 in 2024
  • 8,047 male births in 2024
  • Peak: 1947 (88,321 births)

John as a female name

  • Ranked #11,539 in 2024
  • 8 female births in 2024
  • Peak: 1927 (440 births)

2020 Census snapshot

In the 2020 Census sex table, John appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,125,123 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.

100% male
Male3,118,620 (99.8%)Female6,503 (0.2%)

Popularity

John: popularity over time

The SSA tracks John from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 799,913 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.

Babies born per year

MaleFemale
022K44K66K89K18801900192019401960198020002020

Decades

John 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 John during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.

DecadeMaleFemaleTotal
1880s89,94944590,394
1890s80,66452781,191
1900s84,59048085,070
1910s376,3121,794378,106
1920s564,0513,595567,646
1930s487,9462,581490,527
1940s711,6002,078713,678
1950s797,9171,996799,913
1960s713,3742,743716,117
1970s402,6362,393405,029
1980s321,1612,135323,296
1990s240,147494240,641
2000s161,083308161,391
2010s102,763133102,896
2020s40,2773840,315

Geography

Where Johns live

The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named John, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 96,763 registrations each.

New York
500,527
Pennsylvania
423,033
California
317,616
Illinois
275,689
Ohio
254,991
Texas
244,999
Massachusetts
201,412
New Jersey
199,027
Michigan
182,994
North Carolina
126,327

Origin

Meaning and history of John

The name John has its origins in the ancient Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan, which means "Yahweh is gracious" or "God is merciful." The name was popular among Jews during the Second Temple period and was later adopted by early Christians.

John is one of the most common names in the Bible, with several important figures bearing the name. The most notable is John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, who baptized him in the River Jordan. The Gospel of John, one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament, is traditionally attributed to the Apostle John, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus.

The name John gained widespread popularity in Europe due to its association with Saint John the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel of John. Several early Christian saints and martyrs also bore the name, further contributing to its widespread use throughout the Christian world.

One of the earliest recorded examples of the name John can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name was spelled as "Iohannes" in this document.

Throughout history, many notable figures have borne the name John. Here are five examples:

1. John the Baptist (c. 5 BC - c. 30 AD): A Jewish preacher and a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, and various other religions.

2. John the Apostle (c. 6 AD - c. 100 AD): One of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and traditionally regarded as the author of the Gospel of John.

3. John Wycliffe (c. 1320 - 1384): An English philosopher, theologian, and seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation.

4. John Calvin (1509 - 1564): A French theologian and a prominent figure in the Protestant Reformation, known for his influential teachings on Christian theology.

5. John Locke (1632 - 1704): An English philosopher and one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, known for his work on political philosophy, epistemology, and education.

Notable bearers

Famous people named John

People

John + last name combinations

How many people share a full name with John 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

John: questions and answers

How many people in the U.S. are named John?

Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,941,241 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for John 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 117 US residents.

Is John a common name?

We classify John as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,196,210 babies have been registered with this name.

When was John most popular?

The single biggest year for John was 1947, when 88,524 babies received the name. The fact that the average living John is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.

How common was John in the 2020 Census?

The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,125,114 people with the name John, or 1034.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2 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 John 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 John?

In the 2020 Census sex table, John appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,125,123 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 John?

In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named John is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 John most often in the Census?

White is the largest reported group for people named John in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.9% (2,589,589 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 John in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.

Is John a male name?

Yes, 99.6% of people registered as John 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 John still being used today?

Yes. The SSA still recorded John 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 John 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 John?

Find out how many people have the name John on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.

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There are 2.9M people

with the first name

John

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