Yani
A diminutive form of Yohannes/Yohana, the Hebrew name meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 421 living Americans carry the first name Yani. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Yani today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yani births was 2023 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yani. 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 Yani with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
421
~ 1 in 814,143 Americans
Peak year
2023
27 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,913
Tracked since 1993
Census
Yani in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,083 people with the first name Yani, which placed it at #11,716 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
#11,716
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,083 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yani
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yani is Hispanic at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.1%) and Black (18.9%). 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 Yani 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 Yani at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino44.3% · 480
- Asian and Pacific Islander21.1% · 228
- Black or African American18.9% · 205
- White12.6% · 136
- Two or more races3.0% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Yani
Yani is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 426 total registrations, 111 (26.1%) were male and 315 (73.9%) were female.
Yani as a male name
- Ranked #9,814 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (12 births)
Yani as a female name
- Ranked #7,913 in 2024
- 14 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (25 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yani on both sides of the split. Of the 1,079 people counted with this name, 271 were male (25.1%) and 808 were female (74.9%).
Popularity
Yani: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yani from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 163 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yani remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yani 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 Yani during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yanis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yani
The name Yani is a diminutive form of the Greek name Ioannis, which is derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name has its origins in ancient Greek and Hebrew cultures, dating back to biblical times.
The earliest known reference to the name Yani can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, where it appears as the name of John the Baptist, a Jewish preacher who baptized Jesus Christ. This suggests that the name has been in use for over 2,000 years.
In the Byzantine Empire, which spanned from the 4th to the 15th century, the name Yani was relatively common among Greek-speaking populations. One notable figure from this period was Yani Anagnostes, a 9th-century scholar and teacher who lived in Constantinople.
During the Renaissance, the name Yani gained popularity in Italy, particularly in the city of Venice, which had close ties with the Byzantine Empire. One of the most famous Italians with this name was Yani Bellini, a renowned painter from the Venetian Renaissance, who lived from 1430 to 1516.
In the 17th century, the name Yani appeared in Russia, where it was adopted as a variant of the name Ivan. One prominent Russian with this name was Yani Krylov, a writer and fabulist who lived from 1769 to 1844.
In more recent history, the name Yani has been used in various parts of the world, including Greece, Russia, and the Balkans. One notable figure was Yani Smyrnelis, a Greek Communist leader who played a significant role in the Greek Resistance during World War II.
People
Yani + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yani as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yani: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yani?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 421 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yani 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 814,143 US residents.
Is Yani a common name?
We classify Yani as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 426 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yani most popular?
The single biggest year for Yani was 2023, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yani is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yani in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,083 people with the name Yani, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,716 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 Yani 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 Yani?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yani on both sides of the split. Of the 1,079 people counted with this name, 271 were male (25.1%) and 808 were female (74.9%). 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 Yani?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yani is Hispanic at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.1%) and Black (18.9%). 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 Yani most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yani in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (480 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 Yani in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yani a female name?
Yes, 73.9% of people registered as Yani 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 Yani still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yani 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 Yani 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 Yani?
Want to know how many people share the name Yani? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.