Yochanan
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "Yahweh is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 278 living Americans carry the first name Yochanan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yochanan today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yochanan births was 2014 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yochanan. 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 Yochanan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
278
~ 1 in 1,232,929 Americans
Peak year
2014
16 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,925
Tracked since 1982
Census
Yochanan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 268 people with the first name Yochanan, which placed it at #31,773 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
#31,773
National first-name rank
People counted
268
268 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yochanan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yochanan is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.2%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Yochanan 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 Yochanan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 237
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 14
- Two or more races2.6% · 7
- Black or African American2.2% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
Popularity
Yochanan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yochanan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 92 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yochanan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yochanan 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 Yochanan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yochanans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yochanan
The given name Yochanan is of Hebrew origin, derived from the Biblical Hebrew name Yochanan, which means "Graced by God" or "Yahweh is gracious." The name can be traced back to the ancient Hebrew language, with its roots in the Semitic family of languages.
In the Hebrew Bible, the name Yochanan appears as the name of several individuals, including John the Baptist, who was a Jewish preacher and is revered as a prophet in Christianity and Islam. The name is also mentioned in various ancient Hebrew texts and religious scriptures, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yochanan is Yochanan ben Zakkai, a Jewish sage who lived in the 1st century CE and is credited with saving the Jewish people after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Another notable figure with this name is Yochanan Ha-Sandlar, a Jewish Talmudic scholar who lived in the 3rd century CE.
Throughout history, several prominent individuals have borne the name Yochanan. One of the most famous is John the Apostle, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, who is believed to have lived in the 1st century CE. Another notable figure is Yochanan ben Nappaha, a Jewish scholar and poet who lived in the 3rd century CE and is known for his contributions to the development of the Hebrew language.
In the medieval period, Yochanan Alemanno, an Italian Jewish philosopher and scholar, lived in the 15th century and made significant contributions to the study of Jewish mysticism. Later, in the 16th century, Yochanan Luria, a renowned Jewish rabbi and mystic, lived in Safed, Palestine, and played a crucial role in the development of Kabbalah.
Another prominent figure with the name Yochanan is Yochanan Hasandlar, a Jewish Talmudic scholar who lived in the 3rd century CE and is known for his teachings on Jewish law and ethics. His contributions to the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, have had a lasting impact on Jewish tradition and scholarship.
People
Yochanan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yochanan 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
Yochanan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yochanan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 278 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yochanan 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 1,232,929 US residents.
Is Yochanan a common name?
We classify Yochanan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 282 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yochanan most popular?
The single biggest year for Yochanan was 2014, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yochanan is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yochanan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 268 people with the name Yochanan, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,773 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 Yochanan 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 Yochanan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yochanan leans strongly male. 265 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 3 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Yochanan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yochanan is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.2%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Yochanan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yochanan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (237 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 Yochanan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yochanan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yochanan 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 Yochanan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yochanan 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 Yochanan 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 Yochanan as a first name?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Yochanan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.