Yanis
Greek masculine name meaning "violet-like".
Name Census estimates that about 749 living Americans carry the first name Yanis. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Yanis today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yanis births was 2021 (81 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yanis. 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 Yanis with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
749
~ 1 in 457,616 Americans
Peak year
2021
81 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,433
Tracked since 1998
Census
Yanis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 681 people with the first name Yanis, which placed it at #16,519 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
#16,519
National first-name rank
People counted
681
681 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
37.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yanis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yanis is Hispanic at 37.9%. The next largest groups are White (35.4%) and Black (19.7%). 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 Yanis 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 Yanis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino37.9% · 258
- White35.4% · 241
- Black or African American19.7% · 134
- Two or more races3.7% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Yanis
Yanis leans heavily male at 82.3% of total registrations, but 134 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yanis as a male name
- Ranked #2,433 in 2024
- 57 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (68 births)
Yanis as a female name
- Ranked #15,135 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yanis on both sides of the split. Of the 674 people counted with this name, 427 were male (63.4%) and 247 were female (36.6%).
Popularity
Yanis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yanis from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 318 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
Yanis 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 Yanis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yanis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. New York, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Yanis, while Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yanis
The name Yanis is derived from the Greek name Ioannis, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name has its roots in ancient Greek culture and can be traced back to the 1st century AD.
Yanis was a common name among Greek-speaking populations in the Byzantine Empire and later in the Ottoman Empire. It was often given to boys born on the feast day of St. John the Baptist, a revered figure in both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christian traditions.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Yanis comes from the 10th-century hagiography of St. Yanis the Iberian, a Christian monk and missionary who lived in the 6th century AD. Another notable historical figure with this name was Yanis Philoponus, a Byzantine philosopher and grammarian who lived in the 6th century AD and made significant contributions to the fields of physics and cosmology.
During the Middle Ages, the name Yanis was popular among Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the Balkans and Asia Minor. It was also adopted by some Catholic populations in Italy and other parts of Southern Europe due to cultural exchanges and migrations.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Yanis. These include Yanis Skarimbas (1851-1916), a Greek politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Greece in 1904; Yanis Tsarouchis (1910-1989), a renowned Greek painter and writer; and Yanis Varoufakis (born 1961), a Greek economist and former finance minister.
Another notable bearer of the name was Yanis Xenakis (1922-2001), a Greek-French composer and architect who was a pioneer in the field of electronic music and architectural design. He is known for his innovative use of mathematical models and computer technology in his works.
Yanis Ritsos (1909-1990) was a celebrated Greek poet and author who wrote extensively about social and political issues. His works, which were often critical of oppressive regimes, earned him international acclaim and several prestigious literary awards.
While the name Yanis has its origins in Greek culture, it has also been adopted by other cultures and communities around the world, particularly in areas with significant Greek diaspora populations.
People
Yanis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yanis 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
Yanis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yanis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 749 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yanis 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 457,616 US residents.
Is Yanis a common name?
We classify Yanis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 755 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yanis most popular?
The single biggest year for Yanis was 2021, when 81 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yanis is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yanis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 681 people with the name Yanis, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,519 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 Yanis 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 Yanis?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yanis on both sides of the split. Of the 674 people counted with this name, 427 were male (63.4%) and 247 were female (36.6%). 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 Yanis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yanis is Hispanic at 37.9%. The next largest groups are White (35.4%) and Black (19.7%). 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 Yanis most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yanis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.9% (258 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 Yanis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yanis a male name?
Yes, 82.3% of people registered as Yanis 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 Yanis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yanis 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 Yanis 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 are named Yanis?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.