FastNamesJonathan
Hebrew name meaning "Derived from biblical Hebrew Yehonatan (יְהוֹנָתָן), compound of Yeho (referring to Yahweh) and natan ('to give'), signifying 'Yahweh has given' or 'gift of God'.". Ranked 89th for boys in 2025.
Meaning and origin of Jonathan
Derived from biblical Hebrew Yehonatan (יְהוֹנָתָן), compound of Yeho (referring to Yahweh) and natan ('to give'), signifying 'Yahweh has given' or 'gift of God'.
Linguistically, Jonathan is classified under Hebrew naming traditions. It is typically pronounced "JON-uh-thuhn".
Popularity and ranking
In official US Social Security birth records from 1880 through 2025, Jonathan has been given to a total of 870,866 boys. It has also been given to 3,574 girls.
Peak year: Jonathan reached its highest relative share among boys in 1985, when 24,116 babies received the name (13,048 per million births).
All-time best rank: 15th place, first achieved in 1988.
Recent standing (2025): Ranked 89th with 3,822 births. Ten years earlier in 2015, it ranked 48th (down 41 spots).
Busiest decade: More boys were named Jonathan in the 1980s than in any other decade (229,953 births).
| Decade | Recorded births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 192 |
| 1890s | 129 |
| 1900s | 139 |
| 1910s | 660 |
| 1920s | 1,078 |
| 1930s | 1,663 |
| 1940s | 8,296 |
| 1950s | 25,816 |
| 1960s | 47,389 |
| 1970s | 107,926 |
| 1980s | 229,953 |
| 1990s | 197,503 |
| 2000s | 144,848 |
| 2010s | 79,888 |
| 2020s | 25,386 |
Source: Social Security Administration, national baby name data, data through 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year aren't published, so totals are a little lower than actual births.
Where Jonathan is most common in the US
Accounting for when Jonathan was in fashion nationally, it has been most heavily concentrated in the following states (measured against the expected rate from each state's births):
- New Hampshire: 1.4 times the national rate (4,168 births since 1910).
- Massachusetts: 1.4 times the national rate (25,696 births since 1910).
- Connecticut: 1.3 times the national rate (12,549 births since 1910).
- Rhode Island: 1.3 times the national rate (3,758 births since 1910).
- North Carolina: 1.3 times the national rate (29,314 births since 1910).
Source: Social Security Administration, baby names by state, data through 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a state in a year aren't published, so totals are a little lower than actual births.
How many people have the name Jonathan?
About 815,000 living American boys and men share the name Jonathan. Additionally, an estimated 3,500 living American girls and women share the name.
The median age of an American named Jonathan is 35 years old.
Estimated from Social Security Administration records (1880–2025) and official SSA cohort mortality tables.
History of the name Jonathan
Jonathan derives from the Hebrew name Yehonatan or Yonatan, celebrated in the Old Testament First Book of Samuel. Jonathan was the eldest prince and heir of King Saul, renowned as a courageous military commander who boldly attacked the Philistine garrison at Michmash. Despite being next in line for the throne, Jonathan formed an enduring covenant of self-sacrificing friendship with the young shepherd David, protecting him from Saul's murderous jealousy and providing one of world literature's most sublime portraits of unswerving loyalty.
Despite its profound biblical stature, Jonathan was seldom bestowed in England during the Middle Ages, as medieval christening customs centered heavily on saints of the Catholic liturgical calendar. It surged into widespread use following the Protestant Reformation when English Puritans embraced Old Testament heroes. In eighteenth-century America, the cultural archetype 'Brother Jonathan' emerged as a humorous and heroic national personification of the shrewd, independent New Englander, serving as the popular patriotic predecessor to Uncle Sam.
In American birth records, Jonathan has enjoyed a stellar, sustained trajectory throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Beginning a noticeable climb in the 1950s, Jonathan entered the national top thirty in 1968 and remained there uninterrupted for four consecutive decades through 2008. It peaked at rank 15 in 1988, having been given to more than 850,000 American boys in modern vital statistics.
Notable people named Jonathan
- Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), Anglo-Irish satirist and author of Gulliver's Travels
- Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), American revivalist preacher and philosopher
- Jonathan Larson (1960–1996), American composer and playwright of Rent
- Jonathan Franzen (1959–), American novelist and essayist
Variants and related names
Spelling variants
Diminutives and nicknames
Related names
Sources and references
- Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names (2006), p. 148.
- E. G. Withycombe. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (1977), p. 180.
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), p. 679.