Joana
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 7,398 living Americans carry the first name Joana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Joana today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joana births was 2001 (357 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joana. 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 Joana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.4K
~ 1 in 46,331 Americans
Peak year
2001
357 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,582
Tracked since 1896
Census
Joana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,708 people with the first name Joana, which placed it at #2,355 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
#2,355
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,708 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
66.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joana is Hispanic at 66.1%. The next largest groups are White (19.1%) and Black (8.0%). 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 Joana 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 Joana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino66.1% · 7,074
- White19.1% · 2,050
- Black or African American8.0% · 859
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 594
- Two or more races1.0% · 105
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 26
Popularity
Joana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joana from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,665 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joana 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 Joana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Joana, while Wisconsin, Oklahoma, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 238 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joana
The name Joana is a feminine given name with origins that can be traced back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, which means "Yahweh is gracious" or "God is merciful." This name was later Latinized to Iohannes and then evolved into various forms across different languages and cultures.
In its earliest recorded usage, the name appeared in biblical texts, particularly in the New Testament, where it referred to John the Baptist and John the Apostle. The Portuguese and Spanish form, Joana, emerged during the Middle Ages and gained popularity across the Iberian Peninsula.
One of the earliest known historical figures bearing the name Joana was Joana of Portugal (1452-1490), a Portuguese princess and daughter of King Afonso V. Another notable figure was Joana la Loca (Joanna the Mad, 1479-1555), the Queen of Castile and León, whose tumultuous life and alleged mental instability have been the subject of numerous historical accounts.
In the 16th century, Joana d'Arc (Joan of Arc, 1412-1431), the renowned French heroine and Catholic saint, became one of the most famous bearers of the name. Her defiance against the English during the Hundred Years' War and her eventual martyrdom have made her an iconic figure in both French and world history.
Another prominent figure was Joana Baptista Guanoquiri (1530-1598), a South American indigenous woman who played a crucial role in the Spanish conquest of Chile and served as an interpreter and cultural mediator between the Spanish and the Mapuche people.
In the realm of arts and literature, Joana Vaz (1380-1472), a Portuguese noblewoman and patron of the arts, is credited with commissioning the renowned Nuno Gonçalves Panels, a masterpiece of Portuguese Gothic painting.
While the name Joana has maintained its popularity throughout history, it has also been subject to various spellings and variations across different languages and cultures, reflecting the diverse linguistic and cultural influences that have shaped its evolution over time.
People
Joana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Joana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,398 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joana 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 46,331 US residents.
Is Joana a common name?
We classify Joana as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,877 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joana most popular?
The single biggest year for Joana was 2001, when 357 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joana is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,708 people with the name Joana, or 3.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,355 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 Joana 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 Joana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joana appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,711 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Joana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joana is Hispanic at 66.1%. The next largest groups are White (19.1%) and Black (8.0%). 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 Joana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Joana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.1% (7,074 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 Joana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joana 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 Joana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joana 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 Joana 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 common is the name Joana?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Joana at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.