Johnsie
A diminutive form of the masculine name John, of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 254 living Americans carry the first name Johnsie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Johnsie today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Johnsie births was 1918 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Johnsie. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Johnsie is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Johnsies were born before 1958.
People living today
254
~ 1 in 1,349,427 Americans
Peak year
1918
42 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1970 SSA rank
#7,451
Tracked since 1900
Census
Johnsie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 467 people with the first name Johnsie, which placed it at #21,646 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
#21,646
National first-name rank
People counted
467
467 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Johnsie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Johnsie is White at 50.1%. The next largest groups are Black (42.6%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Johnsie 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 Johnsie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.1% · 234
- Black or African American42.6% · 199
- Two or more races4.3% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Popularity
Johnsie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Johnsie from the 1900s through to the 1970s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 315 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Johnsie 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 Johnsie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Johnsies live
Origin
Meaning and history of Johnsie
The given name Johnsie is a diminutive form of the name John, which is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." It is believed to have originated in medieval England, where the addition of the suffix "-ie" or "-y" was a common practice to create diminutive forms of names.
Johnsie's roots can be traced back to the biblical name Yohanan, which was borne by several figures in the Old Testament, including John the Baptist. The name gained widespread popularity during the Christian era, particularly after the birth of John the Apostle, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Johnsie can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The entry mentions a landowner named "Johnsie of Wessex," indicating the name's use during the Norman period.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Johnsie. One such figure was Johnsie Fitzwilliam (1460-1512), an English nobleman and military commander who fought in the Wars of the Roses. Another prominent bearer of the name was Johnsie Cromwell (1567-1623), a member of the English gentry and the great-grandfather of Oliver Cromwell, the infamous Lord Protector of England.
In the realm of literature, Johnsie Donne (1572-1631) was an acclaimed English poet and cleric, renowned for his metaphysical poetry and sermons. His works, such as "Holy Sonnets" and "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions," have had a lasting impact on English literature.
Another famous Johnsie was Johnsie Milton (1608-1674), the renowned English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His epic poem "Paradise Lost" is considered one of the greatest works of literature in the English language, and his writings significantly influenced the development of English poetry and political thought.
Lastly, Johnsie Locke (1632-1704), an English philosopher and physician, made significant contributions to the fields of political philosophy and epistemology. His influential work, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding," laid the foundation for modern empiricism and shaped the development of modern Western philosophy.
People
Johnsie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Johnsie 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
Johnsie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Johnsie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 254 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Johnsie 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 1,349,427 US residents.
Is Johnsie a common name?
We classify Johnsie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,254 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Johnsie most popular?
The single biggest year for Johnsie was 1918, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Johnsie is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Johnsie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 467 people with the name Johnsie, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,646 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 Johnsie 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 Johnsie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Johnsie leans strongly female. 428 people counted with this name were female (92.8%), compared with 33 male bearers (7.2%). 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 Johnsie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Johnsie is White at 50.1%. The next largest groups are Black (42.6%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Johnsie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Johnsie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.1% (234 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 Johnsie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Johnsie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Johnsie 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 Johnsie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Johnsie 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 Johnsie 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 called Johnsie?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.