Jonah

63,551 people in America carry this name — ranked #778 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it JOH nuh

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH OW1 N AH0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 63,551 2020 Census
  • As a surname 350 ranked #61,890 the other way round

What Jonah means and where it comes from

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “dove”.

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.

How often Jonah has been given

71,728 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2008, with 2,996 of them.

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

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 Jonah

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Jonah John — same opening
  • Jonah James — same opening
  • Jonah Joseph — same opening

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.

On the way up

Jonah is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Jonah used for boys or for girls?

98.8% men
784 women

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

Same syllables and stress as Jonah

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Full names people carry

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.

This name in other languages

  • Jonka Lapp
  • Jonas Latin
  • Jemima English
  • Jonaszus Lith

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.

Where the name Jonah is most common in the US

In Hawaii the name is given 4.1 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Hawaii ×4.1
  • Alaska ×1.6
  • Utah ×1.6
  • Oregon ×1.5
  • Washington ×1.4

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.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet 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