Jonas
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "dove" or "peaceful".
Name Census estimates that about 24,619 living Americans carry the first name Jonas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jonas today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jonas births was 2008 (1,256 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jonas. 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 Jonas with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,922 Americans
Peak year
2008
1,256 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#556
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jonas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 23,952 people with the first name Jonas, which placed it at #1,423 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
#1,423
National first-name rank
People counted
24K
23,952 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jonas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jonas is White at 59.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.5%) and Black (12.0%). 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 Jonas 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 Jonas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.0% · 14,121
- Hispanic or Latino18.5% · 4,429
- Black or African American12.0% · 2,867
- Two or more races4.9% · 1,177
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 1,100
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 258
Gender
Gender distribution for Jonas
Out of the 28,092 babies given the name Jonas 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.
Jonas as a male name
- Ranked #556 in 2024
- 531 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (1,256 births)
Jonas as a female name
- Ranked #17,320 in 2004
- 5 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1981 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jonas appears almost entirely male. Of the 23,952 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Jonas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jonas from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 7,270 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Jonas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jonas 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 Jonas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jonas' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Jonas, while Vermont, North Dakota, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 453 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jonas
The name Jonas is a masculine name of Hebrew origin, derived from the Biblical name Yonah, which means "dove" or "peace." It is thought to have first appeared in the 8th century BCE.
The name Jonas gained popularity due to its appearance in the Old Testament, where it is the name of a prophet who was swallowed by a giant fish or whale. The story of Jonah and the whale is a well-known biblical tale that has been retold throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jonas can be found in the Bible's Book of Jonah, which is believed to have been written sometime between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE. In this book, Jonah is a prophet who is called by God to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh.
In the New Testament, the name Jonas is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, where it is used to refer to the prophet Jonah. This reference suggests that the name was still in use during the time of Jesus Christ.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jonas. One of the earliest was Jonas Hallgrimsson, an Icelandic poet and naturalist who lived from 1807 to 1845. He is considered one of the founders of Icelandic literary romanticism.
Another notable Jonas was Jonas Salk (1914-1995), an American medical researcher who developed the first successful polio vaccine in 1955. His work saved countless lives and helped eradicate the disease in many parts of the world.
In the world of art, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who was a pivotal figure in the American avant-garde film movement. He co-founded the Anthology Film Archives, a renowned repository of avant-garde cinema.
Jonas Kaufmann (born 1969) is a German operatic tenor who is widely regarded as one of the greatest opera singers of his generation. He has performed at major opera houses around the world and has received numerous awards and accolades for his performances.
Finally, Jonas Svensson (born 1963) is a Swedish businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded the popular music streaming service Spotify. He has played a significant role in shaping the modern music industry and how people consume music.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jonas
People
Jonas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jonas 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
Jonas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jonas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24,619 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jonas 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 13,922 US residents.
Is Jonas a common name?
We classify Jonas as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 28,092 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jonas most popular?
The single biggest year for Jonas was 2008, when 1,256 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jonas is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jonas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 23,952 people with the name Jonas, or 7.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,423 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 Jonas 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 Jonas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jonas appears almost entirely male. Of the 23,952 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Jonas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jonas is White at 59.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.5%) and Black (12.0%). 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 Jonas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jonas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.0% (14,121 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 Jonas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jonas a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Jonas 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 Jonas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jonas 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 Jonas 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 Jonas?
Find out how many Americans are named Jonas on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.