Joan

306,627 people in America carry this name — ranked #165 of 923.

Its American moment came before the war.

Say it JOHN

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH OW1 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 306,627 2020 Census
  • Rank #165 Common
  • Per 100,000 101.5 about 1 in 1,081 people

Where Joan comes from and what it means

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “the Lord’s grace”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Joan name popularity by year

486,987 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1932, with 21,132 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30s 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1930s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Joan

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Joan Jennifer — same opening
  • Joan Nancy — runs together
  • Joan Nicole — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Joan was 1932. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Is Joan used for boys or for girls?

3.2% men
296,830 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where in America Joan is thickest on the ground

In North Dakota the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.

  • North Dakota ×2.3
  • Massachusetts ×1.9
  • Wisconsin ×1.9
  • New York ×1.8
  • Pennsylvania ×1.8

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 87.5%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 5.7%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 3.6%
  • Two or more races — 1.2%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.7%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

How to spell Joan

Joan is how 75% of them spell it — 411,357 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

The same name abroad

  • Juana Spanish
  • Jovana Ill
  • Joanna Eng.|Pol
  • Jovanna Portuguese
  • Johanne German
  • Johanna Ger.|Esth
  • Gianina Italian
  • Giovanna Italian
  • Joaniniha Portuguese
  • Giovannina Italian

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin