Johnelle
Feminine diminutive of John, a Hebrew name meaning "God is gracious."
Name Census estimates that about 394 living Americans carry the first name Johnelle. It is a predominantly female name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Johnelle today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Johnelle births was 1989 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Johnelle. 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
394
~ 1 in 869,935 Americans
Peak year
1989
17 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
1989 SSA rank
#6,552
Tracked since 1940
Census
Johnelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 510 people with the first name Johnelle, which placed it at #20,297 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
#20,297
National first-name rank
People counted
510
510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Johnelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Johnelle is White at 39.8%. The next largest groups are Black (36.3%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Johnelle 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 Johnelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.8% · 203
- Black or African American36.3% · 185
- Two or more races8.2% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.5% · 18
Gender
Gender distribution for Johnelle
Johnelle leans heavily female at 97.0% of total registrations, but 13 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Johnelle as a male name
- Ranked #6,552 in 1989
- 7 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (7 births)
Johnelle as a female name
- Ranked #17,029 in 2017
- 5 female births in 2017
- Peak: 1972 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Johnelle leans strongly female. 440 people counted with this name were female (88.2%), compared with 59 male bearers (11.8%).
Popularity
Johnelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Johnelle from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 113 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
Johnelle 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 Johnelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Johnelles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Johnelle
The name Johnelle is an English given name of relatively recent origin, arising in the late 19th or early 20th century. It is a combination of the common English names John and Nelle, the latter being a diminutive form of the name Ellen. John is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious," while Ellen is a variant of the Greek name Helen, which means "bright" or "shining light."
While the name Johnelle lacks a deep historical lineage, it has been borne by a few notable individuals in modern times. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Johnelle Fegan (1878-1945), an American vaudeville performer who was active in the early 20th century. Another notable Johnelle was Johnelle Hunt (1923-2008), an American businesswoman and co-founder of the trucking company J.B. Hunt Transport Services.
In the realm of sports, Johnelle Jernigan (born 1967) was a professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Johnelle Burnett (born 1969) was a professional softball player who competed in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal with the United States national team in 2004.
One of the more prominent bearers of the name was Johnelle Bryant (1925-2018), an American civil rights activist and educator who played a significant role in the desegregation of public schools in Florida in the 1960s. She served as the principal of Orchard Villa Elementary School in Miami, which was one of the first schools in the state to integrate following the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954.
While the name Johnelle may be relatively uncommon, it has been borne by a diverse group of individuals across various fields, from entertainment to sports, business, and civil rights activism. Its unique blend of traditional English names and modern flair has contributed to its enduring, albeit limited, use as a given name in the English-speaking world.
People
Johnelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Johnelle 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
Johnelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Johnelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 394 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Johnelle 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 869,935 US residents.
Is Johnelle a common name?
We classify Johnelle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 438 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Johnelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Johnelle was 1989, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Johnelle is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Johnelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 510 people with the name Johnelle, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,297 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 Johnelle 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 Johnelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Johnelle leans strongly female. 440 people counted with this name were female (88.2%), compared with 59 male bearers (11.8%). 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 Johnelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Johnelle is White at 39.8%. The next largest groups are Black (36.3%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Johnelle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Johnelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.8% (203 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 Johnelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Johnelle a female name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Johnelle 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 Johnelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Johnelle 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 Johnelle 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 common is the name Johnelle?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Johnelle, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.