Yonah
A Hebrew masculine name derived from Yonah, meaning "dove".
Name Census estimates that about 882 living Americans carry the first name Yonah. It is a predominantly male name (97.1% of registrations). The average person named Yonah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yonah births was 2024 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yonah. 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 Yonah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
882
~ 1 in 388,610 Americans
Peak year
2024
43 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,938
Tracked since 1974
Census
Yonah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 723 people with the first name Yonah, which placed it at #15,793 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
#15,793
National first-name rank
People counted
723
723 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yonah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonah is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Yonah 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 Yonah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 605
- Black or African American5.0% · 36
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 24
- Two or more races2.8% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Yonah
Yonah leans heavily male at 97.1% of total registrations, but 26 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yonah as a male name
- Ranked #2,938 in 2024
- 43 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (43 births)
Yonah as a female name
- Ranked #11,120 in 2023
- 9 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2023 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yonah leans strongly male. 630 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 95 female bearers (13.1%).
Popularity
Yonah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yonah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 255 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yonah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yonah 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 Yonah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yonahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Yonah, while California, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 159 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yonah
The name Yonah has its origins in the Hebrew language and Jewish culture. It is derived from the Hebrew word "yonah," which means "dove." The name is believed to have been in use since ancient times, possibly dating back to the biblical era.
One of the earliest and most notable references to the name Yonah is found in the Book of Jonah, one of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells the story of Jonah, a prophet who was called by God to preach to the city of Nineveh but initially fled from his mission before eventually fulfilling it.
In addition to its biblical significance, the name Yonah has been used throughout Jewish history. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Yonah Marin, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 14th century and authored several works on Hebrew grammar and biblical exegesis.
Another notable figure named Yonah was Yonah Rabah, a 16th-century Jewish scholar and kabbalist from Safed, Palestine. He was known for his influential works on Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah.
In the 17th century, Yonah Teomim was a prominent Italian rabbi and scholar who wrote extensively on Jewish law and ethics. He is particularly remembered for his work "Kav Naki," a commentary on the Shulchan Arukh, a important code of Jewish law.
Moving forward in time, Yonah Schonfeld was a 20th-century American Orthodox rabbi and author who founded the Orthodox Jewish Outreach program, an organization dedicated to promoting Jewish education and outreach.
One of the most famous modern individuals with the name Yonah is Yonah Schimmel, an American businessman and restaurateur who founded the iconic Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery in New York City in 1910. The bakery, known for its delicious knishes (a type of pastry), has become a beloved institution and a symbol of Jewish culinary tradition.
People
Yonah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yonah 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
Yonah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yonah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 882 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yonah 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 388,610 US residents.
Is Yonah a common name?
We classify Yonah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 895 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yonah most popular?
The single biggest year for Yonah was 2024, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yonah 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 Yonah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 723 people with the name Yonah, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,793 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 Yonah 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 Yonah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yonah leans strongly male. 630 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 95 female bearers (13.1%). 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 Yonah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonah is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Yonah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yonah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (605 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 Yonah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yonah a male name?
Yes, 97.1% of people registered as Yonah 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 Yonah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yonah 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 Yonah 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 called Yonah?
You can see how many people share the name Yonah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.