Yordanos
An Ethiopian feminine name referring to the Jordan River.
Name Census estimates that about 56 living Americans carry the first name Yordanos. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Yordanos today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yordanos births was 2016 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yordanos. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Yordanos. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
56
~ 1 in 6,120,613 Americans
Peak year
2016
9 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2020 SSA rank
#17,433
Tracked since 2001
Census
Yordanos in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 790 people with the first name Yordanos, which placed it at #14,793 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
#14,793
National first-name rank
People counted
790
790 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
97.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yordanos
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yordanos is Black at 97.8%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Two or More Races (0.6%). 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 Yordanos 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 Yordanos at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American97.8% · 773
- White0.9% · 7
- Two or more races0.6% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 2
Popularity
Yordanos: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yordanos from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 33 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
Yordanos 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 Yordanos during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yordanos
The name Yordanos originates from the Greek language and has its roots in the word "Iordanos," which means "the descender" or "the one who descends." This name is closely associated with the Jordan River in the Middle East, a significant geographical feature and sacred site in Christianity.
Yordanos is a variation of the name John, which is derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan. In the New Testament, John the Baptist is known for baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River, which may have contributed to the name's association with this location.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yordanos can be found in the works of the ancient Greek historian Strabo, who lived from around 64 BC to 24 AD. Strabo mentioned the Jordan River in his writings, which may have influenced the use of the name.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Yordanos. One such figure was Yordanos of Galaktion (died around 512 AD), a Christian monk and hagiographer who wrote the life of Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Yordanos Catalanus (circa 1165-1237), a Catalan mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and the study of the motions of celestial bodies.
In the realm of literature, Yordanos Idrisi (circa 1100-1166) was an Arab geographer, cartographer, and traveler who is best known for his work entitled "Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq" (The Pleasure of Him Who Longs to Cross the Horizons), which contained one of the earliest world maps.
The name Yordanos also finds mention in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, where it is associated with Saint Yordanos, a revered figure celebrated on the 5th day of the month of Hamle in the Ethiopian calendar.
Another notable bearer of the name was Yordanos Haile-Selassie (1919-1988), an Ethiopian prince who served as the President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia and played a significant role in the country's political affairs during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I.
These examples highlight the rich history and diverse cultural influences associated with the name Yordanos, which has been borne by individuals from various backgrounds and has left an indelible mark across various fields, including religion, literature, science, and politics.
People
Yordanos + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yordanos as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yordanos: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yordanos?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 56 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yordanos 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 6,120,613 US residents.
Is Yordanos a common name?
We classify Yordanos as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 57 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yordanos most popular?
The single biggest year for Yordanos was 2016, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yordanos is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yordanos in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 790 people with the name Yordanos, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,793 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 Yordanos 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 Yordanos?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yordanos leans strongly female. 739 people counted with this name were female (93.9%), compared with 48 male bearers (6.1%). 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 Yordanos?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yordanos is Black at 97.8%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Two or More Races (0.6%). 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 Yordanos most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yordanos in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.8% (773 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 Yordanos in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yordanos a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yordanos 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 Yordanos still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yordanos 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 Yordanos 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 Yordanos?
You can see how many people share the name Yordanos on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.