Jowan
A Scottish form of the name John, from Hebrew meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 153 living Americans carry the first name Jowan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jowan today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jowan births was 1997 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jowan. 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 Jowan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
153
~ 1 in 2,240,224 Americans
Peak year
1997
14 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,481
Tracked since 1980
Census
Jowan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 246 people with the first name Jowan, which placed it at #33,566 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
#33,566
National first-name rank
People counted
246
246 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
57.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jowan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jowan is Black at 57.7%. The next largest groups are White (19.1%) and Hispanic (11.4%). 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 Jowan 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 Jowan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American57.7% · 142
- White19.1% · 47
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 28
- Two or more races6.5% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 5
Popularity
Jowan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jowan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 74 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jowan 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 Jowan 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 Jowan
The name Jowan has its origins in the Arabic language, derived from the word "jawwan" which means "wanderer" or "traveler." It is believed to have emerged in the Middle Eastern region during the medieval period, around the 7th to 10th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Jowan can be found in ancient Arabic texts and poetry. It was often used to describe nomadic tribes and individuals who led a wandering lifestyle across the deserts and trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula.
In the 12th century, a prominent Islamic scholar and philosopher named Jowan ibn Masawayh gained recognition for his contributions to the field of medicine and his writings on ethics. He was born in Persia around 777 CE and is considered one of the earliest proponents of the theory of acquired characteristics.
During the Crusades, the name Jowan became more widely known in Europe, as European knights and soldiers encountered Arabs and Muslims bearing this name. One notable figure was Jowan al-Battani, an Arab mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer from the 9th century, who made significant contributions to the field of trigonometry.
In the 14th century, a Syrian poet and writer named Jowan al-Halabi gained fame for his love poems and literary works. He was born in Aleppo around 1325 CE and is celebrated as one of the greatest poets of the Mamluk period.
Another historical figure bearing the name Jowan was Jowan ibn Jahir al-Katib, a 10th-century Arab historian and writer from Baghdad. He is best known for his chronicles of the Abbasid Caliphate and his work on the history of the Arab world during that time.
Over the centuries, the name Jowan has been carried by various individuals across different cultures and regions, although it remains most prevalent in Arab and Muslim communities. Despite its rich historical background, it is not a commonly used name in modern times, and its popularity has waned in comparison to other Arabic names.
People
Jowan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jowan 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
Jowan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jowan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 153 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jowan 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 2,240,224 US residents.
Is Jowan a common name?
We classify Jowan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 157 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jowan most popular?
The single biggest year for Jowan was 1997, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jowan is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jowan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 246 people with the name Jowan, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,566 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 Jowan 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 Jowan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jowan on both sides of the split. Of the 244 people counted with this name, 182 were male (74.6%) and 62 were female (25.4%). 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 Jowan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jowan is Black at 57.7%. The next largest groups are White (19.1%) and Hispanic (11.4%). 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 Jowan most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jowan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.7% (142 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 Jowan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jowan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jowan 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 Jowan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jowan 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 Jowan 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 Jowan?
Want to know how many people share the name Jowan? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.