Jovette
A feminine name of French origin meaning "little young one".
Name Census estimates that about 8 living Americans carry the first name Jovette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jovette today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jovette births was 1955 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jovette. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Jovette. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
8
~ 1 in 42,844,292 Americans
Peak year
1955
5 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
1987 SSA rank
#12,115
Tracked since 1955
Census
Jovette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 121 people with the first name Jovette, which placed it at #50,149 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
#50,149
National first-name rank
People counted
121
121 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jovette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jovette is Black at 47.1%. The next largest groups are White (21.5%) and Hispanic (21.5%). 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 Jovette 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 Jovette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.1% · 57
- White21.5% · 26
- Hispanic or Latino21.5% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 2
- Two or more races0.8% · 1
Popularity
Jovette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jovette from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 5 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jovette 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 Jovette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jovette
The name Jovette is a French feminine name derived from the Latin name Jove, which is a variant form of the name Jovis, meaning "Jupiter" in Roman mythology. Jupiter was the king of the gods in Roman religion and mythology, and his name is the origin of many given names in various languages.
Jovette is a diminutive form of the French name Jovette, which was derived from the Latin name Jovia or Joviana. These names were borne by several early Christian saints, such as Saint Jovita, a Roman martyr who lived in the 2nd century AD.
The earliest recorded use of the name Jovette dates back to the Middle Ages in France. One of the first notable bearers of this name was Jovette de Montfort, a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable women named Jovette, including Jovette Renard (1900-1983), a French actress and singer who appeared in several films during the 1930s and 1940s. Another famous Jovette was Jovette Marchessault (1938-2022), a Canadian writer and playwright known for her contributions to Quebec literature.
In the field of literature, Jovette was the name of a character in the novel "Jovette-Alice" by Canadian author Marie-Claire Blais, published in 1964. The book explored themes of isolation, identity, and the struggle for survival in rural Quebec.
Jovette Bourgeois (1925-2010) was a French-Canadian artist and painter known for her colorful abstract compositions and her involvement in the artistic community of Montreal. She was a recipient of the Order of Canada, one of the highest civilian honors in the country.
Another notable bearer of this name was Jovette Bourque (1929-2005), a Canadian politician and educator who served as Speaker of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1993 to 1998, becoming the first woman to hold this position in the province.
People
Jovette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jovette 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
Jovette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jovette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jovette 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 42,844,292 US residents.
Is Jovette a common name?
We classify Jovette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 24.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jovette most popular?
The single biggest year for Jovette was 1955, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jovette is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jovette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 121 people with the name Jovette, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #50,149 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 Jovette 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 Jovette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jovette leans strongly female. 111 people counted with this name were female (91.0%), compared with 11 male bearers (9.0%). 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 Jovette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jovette is Black at 47.1%. The next largest groups are White (21.5%) and Hispanic (21.5%). 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 Jovette most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jovette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.1% (57 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 Jovette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jovette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jovette 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 Jovette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jovette 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 Jovette 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 Jovette?
You can see how many people share the name Jovette on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.