Yunus
A masculine Arabic name meaning "the whale" or "the prophet Jonah".
Name Census estimates that about 1,208 living Americans carry the first name Yunus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yunus today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yunus births was 2023 (127 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yunus. 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.
Key insights
- • Yunus is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 283,737 Americans
Peak year
2023
127 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,464
Tracked since 1988
Popularity
Yunus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yunus from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 524 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yunus 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 Yunus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yunus' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Yunus, while Tennessee, Minnesota, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 38 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yunus
The name Yunus is derived from the Arabic word younus, which means "whale" or "fish". It has its origins in the Middle East and is an ancient name with roots in the Qur'an and Islamic religious tradition.
The name Yunus is a reference to the prophet Jonah, who was famously swallowed by a whale or large fish according to the biblical and Quranic narratives. In the Qur'an, the story of Yunus (Jonah) is mentioned in two chapters, Al-Anbya and As-Saffat.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Yunus was Yunus ibn Matta (776-861 CE), an Arab Christian scholar and translator from Mesopotamia. He played a significant role in translating Greek philosophical and scientific works into Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age.
In the 12th century, Yunus Emre (1240-1320) was a famous Turkish poet and Sufi mystic who wrote in the Turkish language. His poems, which often carried spiritual themes, contributed greatly to the spread of Islam in Anatolia.
Another notable figure was Yunus Khan (1416-1487), a ruler of the Timurid Empire in Central Asia. He was known for his patronage of arts and architecture, and his reign saw the construction of several prominent buildings in Samarkand and Herat.
In the 16th century, Yunus Pasha (1516-1570) was an Ottoman military commander and Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He played a vital role in the Ottoman conquests in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
More recently, Yunus Emre Özsümer (1942-2022) was a Turkish politician and diplomat who served as the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation from 2004 to 2010.
People
Yunus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yunus 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
Yunus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yunus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,208 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yunus 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 283,737 US residents.
Is Yunus a common name?
We classify Yunus as "Rare". It ranks above 91.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,218 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yunus most popular?
The single biggest year for Yunus was 2023, when 127 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yunus is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Yunus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yunus 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.
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.