Giovani
An Italian masculine given name derived from the Latin name "Johannes".
Name Census estimates that about 7,380 living Americans carry the first name Giovani. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Giovani today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Giovani births was 2011 (519 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Giovani. 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 Giovani with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Giovani is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
7.4K
~ 1 in 46,444 Americans
Peak year
2011
519 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,250
Tracked since 1970
Census
Giovani in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,800 people with the first name Giovani, which placed it at #3,188 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
#3,188
National first-name rank
People counted
6.8K
6,800 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Giovani
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giovani is Hispanic at 83.7%. The next largest groups are White (8.6%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Giovani 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 Giovani at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino83.7% · 5,690
- White8.6% · 585
- Black or African American5.0% · 337
- Two or more races1.4% · 97
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 71
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 20
Gender
Gender distribution for Giovani
Out of the 7,472 babies given the name Giovani since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Giovani as a male name
- Ranked #1,250 in 2024
- 158 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (519 births)
Giovani as a female name
- Ranked #15,885 in 2000
- 5 female births in 2000
- Peak: 2000 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giovani leans strongly male. 6,715 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 90 female bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Giovani: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Giovani from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 3,094 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Giovani 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 Giovani during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Giovanis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Giovani, while Minnesota, Louisiana, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 172 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Giovani
The given name Giovani finds its origins in the Italian language, derived from the Latin name Johannes, which in turn comes from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Graced by God" or "Yahweh is gracious." This name gained widespread popularity during the Renaissance period in Italy and has since been adopted globally.
The earliest recorded use of the name Giovani dates back to the 13th century in Italy, where it was used among the aristocratic and noble classes. The name appears in several historical records and literary works from this era, including the famous Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, where the character Giovani is mentioned.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Giovani. One of the most famous is Giovani Boccaccio (1313-1375), an Italian scholar, writer, and author of the renowned Decameron, a collection of novellas considered a masterpiece of classical Italian prose.
Another prominent figure is Giovani Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594), an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and one of the most influential figures in the development of the Roman School of musical composition.
In the field of art, Giovani Bellini (c. 1430-1516) was a renowned Venetian Renaissance painter, known for his portraits and religious works, including the famous "St. Francis in the Desert."
Giovani Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was an Italian artist and architect, best known for his etchings depicting the ancient ruins of Rome, which influenced the development of Neoclassical and Romantic architectural styles.
Lastly, Giovani Verga (1840-1922) was an influential Italian writer and leader of the Verismo literary movement, which aimed to depict life realistically and objectively, particularly among the working classes.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Giovani, a name deeply rooted in Italian and Latin heritage and steeped in cultural and historical significance.
People
Giovani + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Giovani as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Giovani: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Giovani?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,380 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Giovani 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 46,444 US residents.
Is Giovani a common name?
We classify Giovani as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,472 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Giovani most popular?
The single biggest year for Giovani was 2011, when 519 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Giovani is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Giovani in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,800 people with the name Giovani, or 2.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,188 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 Giovani 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 Giovani?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giovani leans strongly male. 6,715 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 90 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Giovani?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giovani is Hispanic at 83.7%. The next largest groups are White (8.6%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Giovani most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Giovani in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (5,690 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 Giovani in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Giovani a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Giovani 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 Giovani still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Giovani 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 Giovani 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 Giovani?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Giovani at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.