Yonna
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace of God".
Name Census estimates that about 109 living Americans carry the first name Yonna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Yonna today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yonna births was 1971 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yonna. 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
109
~ 1 in 3,144,535 Americans
Peak year
1971
11 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2015 SSA rank
#16,341
Tracked since 1946
Census
Yonna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 260 people with the first name Yonna, which placed it at #32,383 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
#32,383
National first-name rank
People counted
260
260 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yonna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonna is White at 49.6%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Yonna 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 Yonna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.6% · 129
- Black or African American34.6% · 90
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 13
- Two or more races3.5% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Yonna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yonna from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 42 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yonna 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 Yonna 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 Yonna
The name Yonna has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is believed to have emerged during the biblical era, possibly as a diminutive form of the Hebrew name Yonah, which means "dove." The name Yonah itself is derived from the Hebrew root word "y-n-h," meaning "to be gentle" or "to coo like a dove."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yonna can be found in the Book of Jonah, an Old Testament book that tells the story of a prophet named Jonah who was swallowed by a great fish. It is possible that the name Yonna was used as a variant or nickname for Jonah during that time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Yonna. One of the earliest recorded figures was Yonna ben Amram, a 9th-century Jewish scholar and grammarian from Sura, Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). He was known for his contributions to the study of Hebrew grammar and linguistics.
Another prominent figure was Yonna ben Yosef, a 14th-century Jewish philosopher and theologian from Seville, Spain. He wrote extensively on the reconciliation of Jewish philosophy with Aristotelian thought, and his works were influential during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain.
In the 17th century, Yonna Remer was a renowned Dutch painter known for her still-life paintings and portraits. She was one of the few female artists to achieve recognition during the Dutch Golden Age of painting.
Moving forward in time, Yonna Gourarie was a 20th-century Russian-American author and poet. Born in 1899 in Odessa, she emigrated to the United States in the 1920s and became part of the vibrant Russian émigré literary scene in New York City.
More recently, Yonna Jeffers was a prominent American artist and sculptor in the late 20th century. Born in 1950, she was known for her abstract and minimalist works, often incorporating natural materials like wood and stone.
While the name Yonna may have evolved over time and across different cultures, its roots can be traced back to the ancient Hebrew language and biblical times, carrying a sense of gentleness and purity associated with the dove.
People
Yonna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yonna 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
Yonna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yonna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 109 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yonna 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 3,144,535 US residents.
Is Yonna a common name?
We classify Yonna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 130 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yonna most popular?
The single biggest year for Yonna was 1971, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yonna is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yonna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 260 people with the name Yonna, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,383 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 Yonna 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 Yonna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yonna leans strongly female. 258 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 6 male bearers (2.3%). 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 Yonna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yonna is White at 49.6%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Yonna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yonna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.6% (129 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 Yonna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yonna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yonna in the SSA data are female. 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 Yonna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yonna 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 Yonna 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 Yonna?
Find out how many Americans are named Yonna on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.