Yonathan
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "God has given" or "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,411 living Americans carry the first name Yonathan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yonathan today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yonathan births was 2008 (68 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yonathan. 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 Yonathan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 242,916 Americans
Peak year
2008
68 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,092
Tracked since 1983
Census
Yonathan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,763 people with the first name Yonathan, which placed it at #8,268 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
#8,268
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,763 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yonathan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonathan is Hispanic at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Black (26.9%) and White (12.3%). 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 Yonathan 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 Yonathan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino58.1% · 1,024
- Black or African American26.9% · 475
- White12.3% · 217
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 29
- Two or more races1.0% · 18
Popularity
Yonathan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yonathan 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 522 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yonathan 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 Yonathan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yonathans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Yonathan, while North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 57 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yonathan
The name Yonathan has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew name Yonatan, which in turn comes from the root words "Yahweh" meaning "God" and "Natan" meaning "to give." The name can be interpreted as "God has given" or "gift from God."
One of the earliest and most famous historical references to the name Yonathan is found in the Old Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Samuel, Yonathan is the name of the son of King Saul, who was a close friend and ally of the future King David. Yonathan is portrayed as a brave warrior and a loyal friend, who risked his life to protect David from his father's wrath.
Another notable historical figure with the name Yonathan was Yonathan ben Uziel, a renowned Jewish scholar who lived in the 1st century CE. He is credited with writing the Targum, a translation and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, which was widely used in Jewish communities at the time.
In the Middle Ages, Yonathan was a popular name among Jews living in Europe. One notable figure was Yonathan ha-Cohen, a 12th-century Jewish scholar and philosopher from Spain, who wrote extensively on Jewish law and theology.
During the Renaissance period, Yonathan was also used as a name in some Christian communities. One example is Yonathan Swift, an English satirist and author who lived from 1667 to 1745, best known for his works such as "Gulliver's Travels" and "A Modest Proposal."
Another notable figure with the name Yonathan is Yonathan Edwards, an American Puritan philosopher, theologian, and revivalist preacher who lived from 1703 to 1758. He was a key figure in the Great Awakening, a religious revival movement in colonial America, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in American history.
People
Yonathan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yonathan 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
Yonathan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yonathan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,411 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yonathan 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 242,916 US residents.
Is Yonathan a common name?
We classify Yonathan as "Rare". It ranks above 92.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,431 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yonathan most popular?
The single biggest year for Yonathan was 2008, when 68 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yonathan is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yonathan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,763 people with the name Yonathan, or 0.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,268 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 Yonathan 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 Yonathan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yonathan appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,759 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Yonathan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonathan is Hispanic at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Black (26.9%) and White (12.3%). 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 Yonathan most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yonathan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (1,024 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 Yonathan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yonathan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yonathan 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 Yonathan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yonathan 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 Yonathan 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 Americans are named Yonathan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.