Jonathan
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh has given".
Name Census estimates that about 824,779 living Americans carry the first name Jonathan. It sits at #83 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jonathan today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jonathan births was 1988 (24,512 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Eric (815,564).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jonathan. 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 Jonathan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jonathan is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,570 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
825K
~ 1 in 416 Americans
Peak year
1988
24,512 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#83
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jonathan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 717,216 people with the first name Jonathan, which placed it at #47 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
#47
National first-name rank
People counted
717K
717,216 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
237.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jonathan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jonathan is White at 59.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.1%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Jonathan 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 Jonathan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.7% · 428,458
- Hispanic or Latino24.1% · 173,050
- Black or African American7.9% · 56,522
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 30,829
- Two or more races3.4% · 24,666
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 3,691
Gender
Gender distribution for Jonathan
Out of the 870,561 babies given the name Jonathan 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.
Jonathan as a male name
- Ranked #83 in 2024
- 4,018 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1988 (24,348 births)
Jonathan as a female name
- Ranked #14,199 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1984 (183 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jonathan appears almost entirely male. Of the 717,208 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Jonathan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jonathan from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 231,543 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
Jonathan 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 Jonathan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jonathans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jonathan, while Wyoming, Vermont, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16,986 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jonathan
The name Jonathan is derived from the Hebrew name Yonatan, which means "Yahweh has given" or "gift of God". It is a combination of the Hebrew words "Yahweh" (the name of God) and "natan" (to give). The name has its origins in the biblical story of Jonathan, the son of King Saul and a close friend of David, as recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible.
In the Book of Samuel, Jonathan is depicted as a brave warrior and a loyal friend who forms a deep bond with David, even protecting him from his own father's wrath. This biblical account of Jonathan's friendship with David has made the name a popular choice among Christians and Jews throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jonathan can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish religious manuscripts dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The name is also mentioned in other ancient texts, such as the Septuagint, the earliest known Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jonathan. One of the most famous is Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish satirist and author, best known for his satirical masterpiece "Gulliver's Travels". He lived from 1667 to 1745 and was a prominent figure in the literary world of his time.
Another notable Jonathan is Jonathan Edwards, the American Congregational minister and theologian who played a significant role in the Great Awakening religious revival of the 18th century. He was born in 1703 and is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers and preachers in American history.
In the world of politics, Jonathan Trumbull, an American merchant and statesman, served as the Governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784. He was a significant figure in the American Revolutionary War and played a crucial role in supporting the Continental Army.
In the realm of science, Jonathan Ive, the British industrial designer, is widely known for his contribution to the design of Apple's products, including the iMac, iPod, and iPhone. He was born in 1967 and served as the Chief Design Officer at Apple until 2019.
Jonathan Franzen, the American novelist and essayist, is another notable figure who has borne the name. He was born in 1959 and is best known for his critically acclaimed novels, such as "The Corrections" and "Freedom", which explore themes of family dynamics and modern life.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Jonathan, a name that has its roots in the biblical tradition and has been consistently popular across various cultures and eras.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jonathan
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Jonathan Bender
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Jonathan Brandis
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Jonathan Cake
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Jonathan Darby
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Jonathan Dayton
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Jonathan Demme
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Jonathan Frakes
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Jonathan Frid
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Jonathan Glazer
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Jonathan Hensleigh
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Jonathan Kaplan
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Jonathan Lipnicki
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Jonathan Lynn
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Jonathan Meyers
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Jonathan Mostow
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Jonathan Pryce
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Jonathan Rhys
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Jonathan Schwartz
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Jonathan Silverman
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Jonathan Thomas
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Jonathan Vilma
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Jonathan Winters
People
Jonathan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jonathan 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
Jonathan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jonathan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 824,779 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jonathan 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 416 US residents.
Is Jonathan a common name?
We classify Jonathan 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, 870,561 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jonathan most popular?
The single biggest year for Jonathan was 1988, when 24,512 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jonathan is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jonathan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 717,216 people with the name Jonathan, or 237.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47 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 Jonathan 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 Jonathan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jonathan appears almost entirely male. Of the 717,208 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Jonathan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jonathan is White at 59.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.1%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Jonathan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jonathan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.7% (428,458 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 Jonathan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jonathan a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Jonathan 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 Jonathan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jonathan 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 Jonathan 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 Jonathan?
You can see how many people share the name Jonathan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.