Joanna
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 94,050 living Americans carry the first name Joanna. It sits at #329 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Joanna today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joanna births was 1984 (3,353 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joanna. 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 Joanna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Joanna is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 306 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
94K
~ 1 in 3,644 Americans
Peak year
1984
3,353 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2014 SSA rank
#329
Tracked since 1880
Census
Joanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 104,733 people with the first name Joanna, which placed it at #534 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
#534
National first-name rank
People counted
105K
104,733 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
34.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joanna is White at 59.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.9%). 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 Joanna 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 Joanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.7% · 62,519
- Hispanic or Latino25.2% · 26,361
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 7,273
- Black or African American4.9% · 5,172
- Two or more races2.7% · 2,876
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 532
Gender
Gender distribution for Joanna
Out of the 111,062 babies given the name Joanna since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Joanna as a male name
- Ranked #12,979 in 2014
- 5 male births in 2014
- Peak: 1985 (23 births)
Joanna as a female name
- Ranked #329 in 2024
- 942 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1984 (3,332 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 104,730 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Joanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joanna from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 22,370 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joanna 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 Joanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joannas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Joanna, while Wyoming, Vermont, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,079 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joanna
The name Joanna is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious" or "God is gracious." It originated in ancient Israel during biblical times, several centuries before the Common Era. The name Yohanan was a masculine name, but the feminine form Joanna emerged later.
In the New Testament of the Bible, Joanna is mentioned as one of the women who followed Jesus and supported his ministry. She is described as the wife of Chuza, who was a steward of Herod Antipas. This is one of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joanna.
During the Middle Ages, the name Joanna gained popularity in Europe, particularly in regions with strong Christian traditions. It was often used as a variant of the name Joan, which was derived from the same Hebrew root.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Joanna was Joanna of Navarre, who lived from 1370 to 1437. She was the Queen of England as the wife of King Henry IV. Another historical figure was Joanna of Castile, also known as Joanna the Mad, who lived from 1479 to 1555 and was the Queen of Castile and Aragon.
In the 16th century, Joanna Baillie, a Scottish poet and dramatist, was born in 1762 and lived until 1851. She was renowned for her plays and poems, which explored themes of passion and human nature.
Another famous Joanna was Joanna Southcott, an English religious prophetess who lived from 1750 to 1814. She gained a significant following and claimed to have received divine revelations.
In the 20th century, Joanna Lumley, a British actress and author, was born in 1946. She is best known for her roles in the popular television series "Absolutely Fabulous" and "The New Avengers."
While the name Joanna has been used across various cultures and regions, its roots can be traced back to ancient Israel and the Hebrew language, where it originated as a masculine name meaning "God is gracious."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Joanna
People
Joanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joanna 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
Joanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 94,050 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joanna 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 3,644 US residents.
Is Joanna a common name?
We classify Joanna as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 111,062 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Joanna was 1984, when 3,353 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joanna is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 104,733 people with the name Joanna, or 34.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #534 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 Joanna 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 Joanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 104,730 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Joanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joanna is White at 59.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.9%). 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 Joanna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.7% (62,519 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 Joanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joanna a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Joanna 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 Joanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joanna 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 Joanna 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 Americans are named Joanna?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Joanna at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.