Yohanan
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "Jehovah has favored" or "God has been gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 120 living Americans carry the first name Yohanan. It is a predominantly male name (91.7% of registrations). The average person named Yohanan today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yohanan births was 2016 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yohanan. 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
120
~ 1 in 2,856,286 Americans
Peak year
2016
14 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,257
Tracked since 1994
Gender
Gender distribution for Yohanan
Yohanan leans heavily male at 91.7% of total registrations, but 10 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yohanan as a male name
- Ranked #12,257 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (13 births)
Yohanan as a female name
- Ranked #18,348 in 2017
- 5 female births in 2017
- Peak: 2016 (5 births)
Popularity
Yohanan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yohanan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 69 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yohanan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yohanan 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 Yohanan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yohanan
The name Yohanan is of Hebrew origin and can be traced back to the Biblical period. It is a combination of the Hebrew words "Yo" meaning "Jehovah" and "hanan" meaning "grace" or "favor." The name essentially translates to "Jehovah has favored" or "graced by God."
In the Old Testament, Yohanan is mentioned as the name of several individuals. One notable figure is Yohanan the son of Kareah, a military leader during the time of the Babylonian captivity, mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah. Another Yohanan is referred to as the father of Mattathias, the leader of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yohanan dates back to the 1st century BCE. John the Baptist, a Jewish preacher and a forerunner of Jesus Christ, is known as Yohanan in Hebrew. He is revered in Christianity and Islam and is considered a prophet in both religions.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Yohanan or its variations. Johanan ben Zakkai (1st century CE) was a Jewish scholar and one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Yohanan HaSandlar (2nd century CE) was a renowned Jewish scholar and one of the most prominent students of Rabbi Akiva. He was instrumental in preserving and transmitting Jewish oral traditions during the turbulent times following the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans.
Yohanan bar Nafha (3rd century CE) was a Jewish scholar and a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Tiberias. He is known for his contributions to the development of Jewish law and his teachings, which are preserved in the Talmud.
Yohanan ben Nappaha (4th century CE) was a prominent Jewish scholar and one of the last members of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Tiberias. He is credited with compiling the Palestinian Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism.
Yohanan I (6th century CE) was the Patriarch of the Church of Alexandria from 496 to 516 CE. He played a significant role in the ecclesiastical disputes of his time and is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches.
People
Yohanan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yohanan 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
Yohanan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yohanan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 120 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yohanan 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 2,856,286 US residents.
Is Yohanan a common name?
We classify Yohanan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 121 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yohanan most popular?
The single biggest year for Yohanan was 2016, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yohanan is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Yohanan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yohanan a male name?
Yes, 91.7% of people registered as Yohanan 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 Yohanan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yohanan 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 Yohanan 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have the name Yohanan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.