Jona
A feminine name derived from the Hebrew name Yonah meaning "dove".
Name Census estimates that about 2,006 living Americans carry the first name Jona. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Jona today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jona births was 1964 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jona. 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 Jona with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 170,865 Americans
Peak year
1964
57 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,120
Tracked since 1922
Census
Jona in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,637 people with the first name Jona, which placed it at #6,153 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
#6,153
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,637 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jona
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jona is White at 60.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.2%) and Black (11.2%). 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 Jona 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 Jona at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.2% · 1,587
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.2% · 323
- Black or African American11.2% · 296
- Hispanic or Latino11.0% · 289
- Two or more races4.2% · 111
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Jona
Jona is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,258 total registrations, 513 (22.7%) were male and 1,745 (77.3%) were female.
Jona as a male name
- Ranked #4,120 in 2024
- 26 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (26 births)
Jona as a female name
- Ranked #10,613 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (57 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jona on both sides of the split. Of the 2,638 people counted with this name, 716 were male (27.1%) and 1,922 were female (72.9%).
Popularity
Jona: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jona from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 428 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Jona remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jona 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 Jona during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jonas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Jona, while Washington, Ohio, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jona
The name Jona has its origins in the Hebrew language, deriving from the biblical name Yonah, meaning "dove." This name finds its roots in ancient Semitic cultures and can be traced back to around the 8th century BCE.
The name Jona holds significance in religious texts, appearing prominently in the Book of Jonah in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. In this narrative, Jonah is a prophet who is swallowed by a giant fish or whale after refusing to follow God's command. His story serves as a lesson in obedience and divine mercy.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jona can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of the father of the apostle Peter. This reference dates back to the 1st century CE.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jona. One example is Jona of Bobbio (c. 600 - 659), an Irish monk and scholar who founded the Monastery of Bobbio in northern Italy. Another prominent figure was Jona Jaschwanti (1054 - 1121), a medieval Jewish scholar and philosopher from Spain.
In the realm of literature, Jona is the name of a character in the 16th-century play "The Alchemist" by Ben Jonson. Additionally, Jona Hill (1735 - 1810) was an American Revolutionary War soldier and early settler in Vermont.
The name Jona has also been carried by several religious figures, such as Jona of Nineveh (c. 700 - 770), an East Syrian monk and theologian, and Jona of Antioch (c. 750 - 835), a Syriac Orthodox bishop and writer.
While the name Jona has its roots in ancient Hebrew and Semitic cultures, it has been adopted and used across various regions and time periods, reflecting its enduring presence in history and literature.
People
Jona + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jona 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
Jona: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jona?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,006 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jona 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 170,865 US residents.
Is Jona a common name?
We classify Jona as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,258 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jona most popular?
The single biggest year for Jona was 1964, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jona is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jona in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,637 people with the name Jona, or 0.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,153 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 Jona 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 Jona?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jona on both sides of the split. Of the 2,638 people counted with this name, 716 were male (27.1%) and 1,922 were female (72.9%). 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 Jona?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jona is White at 60.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.2%) and Black (11.2%). 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 Jona most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jona in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.2% (1,587 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 Jona in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jona a female name?
Yes, 77.3% of people registered as Jona 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 Jona still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jona 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 Jona 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 share the name Jona?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.