Jonah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "dove".
Name Census estimates that about 80,896 living Americans carry the first name Jonah. It sits at #126 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Jonah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jonah births was 2008 (2,998 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jonah. 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 Jonah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jonah is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 752 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Jonah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
81K
~ 1 in 4,237 Americans
Peak year
2008
2,998 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#126
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jonah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 63,553 people with the first name Jonah, which placed it at #778 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
#778
National first-name rank
People counted
64K
63,553 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
21.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jonah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jonah is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.3%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Jonah 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 Jonah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.7% · 42,415
- Hispanic or Latino14.3% · 9,119
- Two or more races7.5% · 4,766
- Black or African American6.3% · 3,980
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 2,705
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 568
Gender
Gender distribution for Jonah
Out of the 83,176 babies given the name Jonah since 1880, 99.1% 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.
Jonah as a male name
- Ranked #126 in 2024
- 2,879 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (2,981 births)
Jonah as a female name
- Ranked #5,198 in 2024
- 25 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jonah leans strongly male. 62,767 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 784 female bearers (1.2%).
Popularity
Jonah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jonah from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 28,288 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jonah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jonah 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 Jonah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jonahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jonah, while Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,555 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jonah
The given name Jonah has its origins in the ancient Hebrew language. It is derived from the Hebrew word "Yonah," which means "dove" or "pigeon." The name's roots can be traced back to around the 8th century BCE.
Jonah is a prominent name in the Bible, appearing in the Book of Jonah, which recounts the story of the prophet who was swallowed by a giant fish or whale. The narrative is believed to have been written between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jonah can be found in the Bible. Jonah, the son of Amittai, was a prophet from Gath-hepher in ancient Israel who played a pivotal role in the biblical narrative.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jonah. One of the most famous was Jonah Ibn Janah, a renowned Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer who lived in Spain from around 990 to 1050 CE. His works significantly influenced the study of Hebrew grammar and linguistics.
Another historical figure named Jonah was Jonah Furman, a prominent American Revolutionary War soldier. He was born in 1735 and served as a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, participating in several key battles.
In the realm of literature, Jonah Ludwig Hallgarten was a German-American writer and translator born in 1838. He is known for his translations of works by notable authors like Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson from Norwegian to English.
Jonah Barrington was an Irish writer, judge, and politician who lived from 1756 to 1834. He is remembered for his memoirs, which provide valuable insights into the social and political climate of Ireland during his lifetime.
Lastly, Jonah Lomu was a legendary New Zealand rugby union player who was born in 1975 and passed away in 2015. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest rugby players of all time, known for his incredible size, speed, and power on the field.
People
Jonah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jonah 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
Jonah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jonah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 80,896 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jonah 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 4,237 US residents.
Is Jonah a common name?
We classify Jonah as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 83,176 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jonah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jonah was 2008, when 2,998 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jonah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jonah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 63,553 people with the name Jonah, or 21.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #778 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 Jonah 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 Jonah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jonah leans strongly male. 62,767 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 784 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Jonah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jonah is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.3%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Jonah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jonah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.7% (42,415 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 Jonah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jonah a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Jonah 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 Jonah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jonah 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 Jonah 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 Jonah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.