Juan
A masculine Spanish name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 326,928 living Americans carry the first name Juan. It sits at #137 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Juan today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Juan births was 2005 (8,256 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Juan. 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 Juan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Juan is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,760 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
327K
~ 1 in 1,048 Americans
Peak year
2005
8,256 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#137
Tracked since 1880
Census
Juan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 655,686 people with the first name Juan, which placed it at #60 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
#60
National first-name rank
People counted
656K
655,686 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
217.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Juan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Juan is Hispanic at 96.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.5%) and Black (1.1%). 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 Juan 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 Juan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.3% · 631,639
- White1.5% · 9,943
- Black or African American1.1% · 7,510
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 4,878
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 955
- Two or more races0.1% · 761
Gender
Gender distribution for Juan
Out of the 366,010 babies given the name Juan since 1880, 99.2% 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.
Juan as a male name
- Ranked #137 in 2024
- 2,601 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2005 (8,230 births)
Juan as a female name
- Ranked #14,233 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1983 (70 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Juan appears almost entirely male. Of the 655,696 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Juan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Juan from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 76,072 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Juan 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 Juan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Juans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Juan, while West Virginia, South Dakota, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7,497 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Juan
The given name Juan has its origins in the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious" or "Graced by God". It is derived from the root words yo (meaning Yahweh) and hanan (meaning to be gracious or merciful). The name was later Latinized into the form Johannes during the spread of Christianity.
Juan is the Spanish variant of Johannes, which emerged in the Iberian Peninsula during the early Middle Ages. The name was introduced to the region by Christian missionaries and became widely adopted among the local population. It was particularly popular in areas that had been under Moorish rule, as Juan represented a Christian name distinct from Arabic names.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Juan can be found in the Codex Calixtinus, a 12th-century manuscript that documented the journey of pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago. The text mentions a Spanish nobleman named Juan Arias who assisted pilgrims along the route.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Juan. In the 15th century, Juan de Torquemada (1388-1468) was a Spanish Catholic cardinal and theologian who played a significant role in the Spanish Inquisition. Juan Ponce de León (1460-1521) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador credited with the first European expedition to Florida and the search for the mythical Fountain of Youth.
During the Golden Age of Spanish literature, Juan Ruiz (c. 1283-1350) was a renowned poet and author of the satirical masterpiece "Libro de Buen Amor" (Book of Good Love). Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591), a Carmelite friar and mystic, is revered as one of the greatest poets and spiritual writers in the Spanish language.
In the realm of art, Juan Gris (1887-1927) was a renowned Spanish Cubist painter and sculptor, known for his innovative approach to depicting synthetic cubism on canvas. Juan Miró (1893-1983), a surrealist artist from Barcelona, is celebrated for his abstract and whimsical paintings, sculptures, and ceramics.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the given name Juan, reflecting its enduring legacy and cultural significance in the Spanish-speaking world.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Juan
People
Juan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Juan 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
Juan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Juan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 326,928 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Juan 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 1,048 US residents.
Is Juan a common name?
We classify Juan as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 366,010 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Juan most popular?
The single biggest year for Juan was 2005, when 8,256 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Juan 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 Juan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 655,686 people with the name Juan, or 217.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #60 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 Juan 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 Juan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Juan appears almost entirely male. Of the 655,696 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Juan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Juan is Hispanic at 96.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.5%) and Black (1.1%). 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 Juan most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Juan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.3% (631,639 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 Juan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Juan a male name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Juan 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 Juan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Juan 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 Juan 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 Juan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.