Yonas
A masculine name of Hebrew derivation meaning "dove".
Name Census estimates that about 403 living Americans carry the first name Yonas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yonas today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yonas births was 2003 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yonas. 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 Yonas with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
403
~ 1 in 850,507 Americans
Peak year
2003
22 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,155
Tracked since 1985
Census
Yonas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,563 people with the first name Yonas, which placed it at #9,063 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
#9,063
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,563 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
94.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yonas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonas is Black at 94.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.4%) and Hispanic (1.6%). 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 Yonas 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 Yonas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American94.0% · 1,469
- White2.4% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 25
- Two or more races1.4% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
Popularity
Yonas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yonas from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 120 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Yonas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yonas 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 Yonas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yonas' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yonas
The name Yonas has its origins in the Hebrew language and is a variant of the biblical name Jonah. It is derived from the Hebrew word "yonah," which means "dove." The name is believed to have been in use since ancient times, dating back to the 8th century BC.
In the Bible, Jonah was a prophet who was famously swallowed by a large fish or whale after disobeying God's command to preach in the city of Nineveh. The Book of Jonah in the Old Testament recounts his story, which has become a well-known biblical narrative.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Yonas can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, where it appears as the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Jonah. The Gospel of Matthew (12:39-41) and the Gospel of Luke (11:29-32) reference Jonah and his significance as a sign to the people of that time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Yonas. One of the earliest was Yonas of Sirmium, a 4th-century Christian bishop and writer who lived in the Roman province of Pannonia (modern-day Serbia and Hungary). He is known for his writings against the Arian heresy.
Another prominent figure was Yonas Butchens (c. 1550-1629), a Dutch scholar and theologian who wrote extensively on the Book of Jonah and its allegorical interpretations. He served as a professor at the University of Leiden and was highly regarded in his time.
In the 17th century, Yonas Michaëlius (1577-1638) was a Dutch Reformed minister who is credited with establishing the first Protestant church in what is now New York City. He arrived in the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1628 and played a significant role in the early religious life of the settlement.
The name Yonas also has a presence in Ethiopian history. Yonas IV (1831-1868) was a prominent emperor of Ethiopia who ruled from 1858 until his death. He is remembered for his efforts to modernize the country and strengthen its ties with European powers.
In more recent times, Yonas Kebede (born 1981) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who has won numerous international marathons and competitions. He represented Ethiopia at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and continues to be a prominent figure in the world of athletics.
People
Yonas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yonas 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
Yonas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yonas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 403 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yonas 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 850,507 US residents.
Is Yonas a common name?
We classify Yonas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 409 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yonas most popular?
The single biggest year for Yonas was 2003, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yonas is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yonas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,563 people with the name Yonas, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,063 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 Yonas 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 Yonas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yonas appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,561 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Yonas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonas is Black at 94.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.4%) and Hispanic (1.6%). 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 Yonas most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yonas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.0% (1,469 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 Yonas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yonas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yonas 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 Yonas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yonas 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 Yonas 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 common is the name Yonas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.