Giovanni
A masculine given name of Italian origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 85,705 living Americans carry the first name Giovanni. It sits at #122 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Giovanni today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Giovanni births was 2010 (3,445 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Giovanni. 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 Giovanni with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Giovanni is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 967 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Giovanni 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
86K
~ 1 in 3,999 Americans
Peak year
2010
3,445 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#122
Tracked since 1907
Census
Giovanni in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 66,483 people with the first name Giovanni, which placed it at #759 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
#759
National first-name rank
People counted
66K
66,483 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
22.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
63.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Giovanni
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giovanni is Hispanic at 63.3%. The next largest groups are White (25.4%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Giovanni 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 Giovanni at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino63.3% · 42,071
- White25.4% · 16,880
- Black or African American6.4% · 4,269
- Two or more races3.3% · 2,205
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 900
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 158
Gender
Gender distribution for Giovanni
Giovanni leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 967 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Giovanni as a male name
- Ranked #122 in 2024
- 2,951 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (3,434 births)
Giovanni as a female name
- Ranked #7,340 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (44 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giovanni leans strongly male. 65,746 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 734 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Giovanni: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Giovanni from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 30,535 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Giovanni remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Giovanni 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 Giovanni during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Giovannis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Giovanni, while Vermont, North Dakota, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,689 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Giovanni
The name Giovanni has its origins in the late Latin name Johannes, which itself derives from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious". It is the Italian equivalent of the English name John.
The name Giovanni first emerged in Italy during the Middle Ages, around the 5th century AD. It was widely used throughout the country and became particularly popular in regions like Tuscany, Lombardy, and Sicily. The name's popularity can be attributed to its association with John the Baptist, one of the most revered figures in Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Giovanni can be found in the writings of the Italian scholar and philosopher, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). He was a prominent figure during the Italian Renaissance and is known for his work in attempting to reconcile various philosophical and religious traditions.
Throughout history, there have been many notable individuals who bore the name Giovanni. One of the most famous was Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), an Italian writer and poet best known for his masterpiece, the Decameron, a collection of novellas that provides a fascinating glimpse into 14th-century Italian life.
Another notable Giovanni was the Italian painter and architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), who is renowned for his etchings of ancient Roman ruins and his influential architectural designs.
In the realm of music, the name Giovanni is associated with the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594), who is considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance and a leading figure in the development of sacred polyphonic music.
The name Giovanni also has a strong connection to the Catholic Church. One of the most famous Popes in history, Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881-1963), was known for his efforts to reform and modernize the Church during his papacy from 1958 to 1963.
Another notable Giovanni was the Italian physicist and astronomer, Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712), who is best known for his work in discovering several moons of Saturn and for his contributions to the development of the laws of planetary motion.
People
Giovanni + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Giovanni 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
Giovanni: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Giovanni?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 85,705 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Giovanni 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 3,999 US residents.
Is Giovanni a common name?
We classify Giovanni as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 87,354 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Giovanni most popular?
The single biggest year for Giovanni was 2010, when 3,445 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Giovanni 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 Giovanni in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 66,483 people with the name Giovanni, or 22.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #759 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 Giovanni 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 Giovanni?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giovanni leans strongly male. 65,746 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 734 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Giovanni?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giovanni is Hispanic at 63.3%. The next largest groups are White (25.4%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Giovanni most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Giovanni in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.3% (42,071 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 Giovanni in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Giovanni a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Giovanni 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 Giovanni still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Giovanni 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 Giovanni 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 share the name Giovanni?
Want to know how many people have the name Giovanni? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.