Sanjuanita
A feminine Spanish name derived from "San Juan" (Saint John).
Name Census estimates that about 2,800 living Americans carry the first name Sanjuanita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sanjuanita today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sanjuanita births was 1952 (134 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sanjuanita. 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.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 122,412 Americans
Peak year
1952
134 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2013 SSA rank
#16,198
Tracked since 1928
Census
Sanjuanita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,768 people with the first name Sanjuanita, which placed it at #4,064 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
#4,064
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,768 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
98.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sanjuanita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sanjuanita is Hispanic at 98.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.1%). 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 Sanjuanita 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 Sanjuanita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino98.3% · 4,689
- White1.3% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 6
- Black or African American0.1% · 4
- Two or more races0.1% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.0% · 1
Popularity
Sanjuanita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sanjuanita from the 1920s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 982 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sanjuanita 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 Sanjuanita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sanjuanitas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Sanjuanita, while Florida, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,012 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sanjuanita
Sanjuanita is a feminine given name with Spanish origins, derived from the phrase "San Juan," meaning "St. John" in English. The name likely emerged during the Spanish Golden Age, which spanned the 16th and 17th centuries, when the veneration of saints and their names was widespread in Catholic Spain and its colonies.
The name Sanjuanita can be traced back to the Spanish diminutive form "Juanita," which itself is a derivative of the name Juan, the Spanish equivalent of John. The addition of "San" (meaning "Saint") to "Juanita" creates the more formal and reverent version, Sanjuanita, likely bestowed upon newborn girls in honor of St. John the Baptist or St. John the Evangelist.
While the name's origins are rooted in Spain, it has been widely adopted throughout Latin America, particularly in regions with a strong Spanish colonial influence, such as Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. Historical records indicate that the name was commonly used among Spanish settlers and their descendants in these regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sanjuanita can be found in the 16th-century Spanish novel "La Celestina" by Fernando de Rojas, where a minor character bears this name. Another notable early reference is Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), a Mexican nun and renowned poet of the Baroque period, who was baptized as Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Sanjuanita, including Sanjuanita Longoria (1892-1988), a Mexican-American activist and educator who played a pivotal role in the desegregation of public schools in Texas; Sanjuanita García (1918-2010), a Cuban-American educator and civil rights activist; and Sanjuanita Rodríguez (1922-2012), a Venezuelan actress and singer known for her work in Mexican cinema.
Additionally, there are records of Sanjuanita María Mendoza (1848-1893), a Mexican author and educator who advocated for women's rights and education, and Sanjuanita Cortés (1817-1892), a Cuban revolutionary and abolitionist who fought against slavery and Spanish colonial rule.
People
Sanjuanita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sanjuanita as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sanjuanita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sanjuanita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,800 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sanjuanita 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 122,412 US residents.
Is Sanjuanita a common name?
We classify Sanjuanita as "Rare". It ranks above 95% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,476 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sanjuanita most popular?
The single biggest year for Sanjuanita was 1952, when 134 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sanjuanita is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sanjuanita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,768 people with the name Sanjuanita, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,064 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 Sanjuanita 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 Sanjuanita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sanjuanita appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,767 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Sanjuanita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sanjuanita is Hispanic at 98.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.1%). 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 Sanjuanita most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Sanjuanita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.3% (4,689 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 Sanjuanita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sanjuanita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sanjuanita 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 Sanjuanita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sanjuanita 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 Sanjuanita 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 have the name Sanjuanita?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.