Yonis
Arabic name meaning "son of nobility" or "man of grace".
Name Census estimates that about 412 living Americans carry the first name Yonis. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yonis today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yonis births was 2011 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yonis. 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 Yonis with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
412
~ 1 in 831,928 Americans
Peak year
2011
26 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,928
Tracked since 1994
Census
Yonis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 633 people with the first name Yonis, which placed it at #17,430 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
#17,430
National first-name rank
People counted
633
633 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yonis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonis is Black at 52.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (42.2%) and White (3.6%). 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 Yonis 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 Yonis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.8% · 334
- Hispanic or Latino42.2% · 267
- White3.6% · 23
- Two or more races0.8% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 4
Popularity
Yonis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yonis from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 178 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yonis remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yonis 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 Yonis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yonis' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yonis
The name Yonis is of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "yunus," which means "whale" or "dolphin." It is closely related to the biblical name Jonah, who was famously swallowed by a whale in the Old Testament. The name has been in use for centuries in the Middle East and North Africa.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Yonis can be found in the Quran, where it is mentioned as the name of the prophet Jonah (Yunus in Arabic). According to Islamic tradition, Yonis was a messenger of God who was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh, but they rejected his message, leading to his famous encounter with the whale.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yonis. For example, Yonis Mahmoud Effendi (1223-1298 AH, or approximately 1808-1881 CE) was an Egyptian scholar and jurist who served as the Grand Mufti of Egypt during the 19th century.
Another notable figure was Yonis Musakhanov (1835-1905), a prominent Kumyk poet and educator from the North Caucasus region of Russia. His works played a significant role in the development of Kumyk literature and the preservation of the region's cultural heritage.
In the realm of sports, Yonis Mahmoud (born 1975) is a former Egyptian footballer who played as a striker for several clubs, including Al-Ahly and the Egyptian national team. He was part of the Egyptian team that won the African Cup of Nations in 1998.
Yonis Osman Ayuba (1944-1998) was a Somali politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He played a crucial role in shaping Somalia's foreign policy during a turbulent period in the country's history.
Another notable figure was Yonis Tawfiq (1881-1960), an Egyptian writer and journalist who was a prominent figure in the literary and cultural circles of early 20th century Egypt. His works explored themes of social justice, nationalism, and the struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
While the name Yonis has its roots in the Arab world, it has also gained popularity in other regions and cultures over time, with variations in spelling and pronunciation. However, its association with the biblical and Quranic figure of Jonah remains a central part of its meaning and significance.
People
Yonis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yonis 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
Yonis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yonis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 412 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yonis 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 831,928 US residents.
Is Yonis a common name?
We classify Yonis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 416 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yonis most popular?
The single biggest year for Yonis was 2011, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yonis is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yonis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 633 people with the name Yonis, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,430 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 Yonis 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 Yonis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yonis leans strongly male. 608 people counted with this name were male (95.7%), compared with 27 female bearers (4.3%). 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 Yonis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonis is Black at 52.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (42.2%) and White (3.6%). 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 Yonis most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yonis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.8% (334 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 Yonis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yonis a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yonis 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 Yonis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yonis 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 Yonis 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 named Yonis?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.