Skip to content
NameBattle
My names

Giovanni

Feminine · “Hebrew "God is gracious”

Giovanni is given to boys far more often — 89,368 boys against 983 girls since 1880. See Giovanni as a boy name

1971high 1993
#6838 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year
rare16 girls in 2025

Giovanni is the Italian John — one of the most-used men's names in European history — and it appears here in the female column. That is not a data error and not a modern invention. Whole men's names have been given to American girls in small numbers for two centuries, and Giovanni's 1993 peak sits in a period when Italian-American names were being revived for daughters as readily as for sons.

How old is the name Giovanni?

Giovanni first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Giovanni alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 1,000 people named Giovanni are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Giovanni most popular?

Giovanni peaked in 1993, reaching #2725 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 4,113 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.

Compare this nameMore “G” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Giovanni

Latin Iohannes became Italian Giovanni through a chain of ordinary sound changes: the initial I became a consonantal glide, the h vanished, and the double n stayed. It has been among Italy's most common men's names since the Middle Ages. In America, the female entries have two likely sources. Some are honor names — a granddaughter given a grandfather's name outright, a long-standing practice in Italian-American families. Others follow the poet Nikki Giovanni, whose surname carried the sound into a female context from 1968 onward.

Meaning

Hebrew "God is gracious"

From Yohanan, "Yahweh has been gracious", through Greek Ioannes and Latin Iohannes. The etymology is identical for John, Juan, Jean, Ivan, Sean, Johan and Giovanni; only the sound changes. The name's meaning is not affected by which column of the data it appears in.

How the name formed

  1. Yohanan
  2. Iohannes
  3. Giovanni

Related forms: Giovanna · Juan · Jean · John · Иван (Ivan)

Pronouncing Giovanni

joh-VAH-nee

The gi is a single soft J sound, not a hard G and not two syllables. Italian stress is on the middle syllable and the double n is genuinely held longer than a single one, though American speakers do not usually reproduce that.

Nicknames for Giovanni

High

GiaThe standard female short form, and by far the most common everyday name for a girl called Giovanni
VanniThe Italian back-clipping, used in Italy for men and rarely carried to America
GioUnisex and increasingly common
NinaBuilt from the final syllable, in the Italian habit of taking the end rather than the front
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

GIRLS NAMED · 1971–202544220441619712025

US babies named Giovanni per year from 1971 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#27251970s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1971
Most girls named
199344 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#2725reached in 1993
Change vs 2024
+6.7%16 in 2025, from 15
Giovanni sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 1993, with 44 girls. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.

Giovanni in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Giovanna in Italian (feminine) — related form
  • Juan in Spanish — same name
  • Jean in French — same name
  • John in English — same name
  • Иван (Ivan) in Russian — same name

Giovannis among us

1,000

people named Giovanni are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Giovanni

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

III

Is it right for you

The Derenda test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Giovanni's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Derenda climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Derenda's path sketches the road Giovanni is walking now.

40%chance Giovanni will feel dated by 2040
Giovanni, aligned on its peakDerenda· peak 1956not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-20 yrs+30 yrsDerenda · #9095Giovanni today
Giovanni today is about where Derenda stood in 1988 — 32 years past a #2725-sized peak. Within 15 years, Derenda had drifted out of the mainstream charts.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Giovanni sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.

A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored

Giovanni beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Giovanni in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Giovannithis name16#6838Malana16#6838Jeannie16#6838Maxie16#6838Nicol16#6838

US girls given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • It is one of the most historically weighted names available, with a documented line back to the first century.
  • Gia is a well-established, unambiguously female short form.
  • The sound is warm and unusually musical for a formal name.
What to consider
  • It is overwhelmingly a men's name worldwide, and every form and system will assume so.
  • Giovanna exists and is the standard Italian feminine; choosing Giovanni instead is a deliberate departure.
  • The gi spelling is mispronounced as a hard G by a large share of English speakers.

Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Giovanni to the vote.

Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.

Start a family voteSwipe together

Only the people you invite can see your list.

Already decided on Giovanni? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.

Or just send this page to someone:

WhatsAppPinterestFacebook

What they receive

Someone added a name to your list

Giovanni

Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.

♥ Love itNot for meLet’s talk about it
Add a note — what do you like about it?
Your shared list is empty. Giovanni would be the first name on it.

Frequently asked

How many Giovannis are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Giovanni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How popular is the name Giovanni in 2025?
Giovanni ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Giovanni?
About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Giovanni — 16 in all.
Will my child share the name Giovanni with classmates?
Giovanni will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Giovanni

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Giovanni? See the current top 100.

Choosing between Giovanni and another name?

See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.

Compare side by side

In a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.

Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.

Cast your vote

Which one would you pick?

Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.

US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle