Giovanni
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Giovanni is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 89,368 boys against 983 girls since 1880. See Giovanni as a girl name
Giovanni is the Italian John — the name of the man who wrote The Decameron in fourteenth-century Florence and of Bellini, who painted Venice into being. Four syllables that fall into a natural rhythm, with the stress landing on the open middle: joh-VAH-nee. It has been one of Italy's most-worn names for something like seven hundred years, and it crossed to America with Italian families and stayed.
How old is the name Giovanni?
Giovanni first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Giovanni alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 87,500 people named Giovanni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Giovanni most popular?
Giovanni peaked in 2010, reaching #117 nationally. Today it ranks #123, 6 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Giovanni appears on these lists:
- The steadiest names in America
- The sweet spot: familiar but not everywhere
- Four-syllable names that carry
- Eight-letter names with presence
- Names with a double letter
- Italian names Americans adore
- all guides
Works in Italian families too:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Giovanni
The story of Giovanni
The name begins as Hebrew Yohanan and reaches Italy by way of Greek Iōannēs and Latin Iohannes, spread through Christian Europe by the two Johns of the New Testament — the Baptist and the Evangelist. Italian reshaped Iohannes into Giovanni, and it became a standard of the peninsula: Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron, and Giovanni Bellini, the great Venetian painter, both carried it in the centuries when it was already ordinary. Large-scale Italian emigration brought it to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, where it has been recorded ever since. Today it holds steady rather than spiking, and it is most concentrated in California, Texas and New York.
Meaning
God is gracious
From the Hebrew name Yohanan, 'Yahweh is gracious' — the same root that gives English John, Spanish Juan and French Jean.
Cultural footprint
Giovanni Boccaccio (b. 1313) — Wrote The Decameron
Giovanni Bellini (b. 1430) — Master of the Venetian Renaissance
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Iōannēs
- Iohannes
- Giovanni
Related forms: John · Juan · Jean · Johannes · João · Ivan
Pronouncing Giovanni
joh-VAH-nee
In Italian the opening 'Gio' is a single syllable, giving three beats: joh-VAH-nee. Many American speakers say four, jee-oh-VAH-nee, and both are widely heard here.
Nicknames for Giovanni
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1907
- Most boys named
- 20103,434 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #117reached in 2010
- Change vs 2023
- +0.6%2,939 in 2025, from 2,922
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
- John in English — same name
- Juan in Spanish — same name
- Jean in French — same name
- Johannes in German — same name
- João in Portuguese — same name
- Ivan in Russian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Giovannis among us
people named Giovanni are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 581 born in 2025 was named Giovanni
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Reginald 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: Reginald climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Reginald's path sketches the road Giovanni is walking now.
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
Where Giovanni is headed
Giovanni should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Giovanni beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Giovanni in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Belongs to the John family, so it has a recognizable relative in nearly every European language — John, Juan, Jean, Ivan, Johannes.
- Two ready-made short forms, Gio and Gianni, both in real use and both able to stand alone.
- A documented record stretching back to medieval Italy, with no gap since it first appeared in US records.
- Familiar to American ears and eyes without being common in any one classroom.
- The meaning is settled, not guesswork — no competing readings to weigh.
- The spelling trips people: one v, two n's. Expect Giovani and Giovannie on forms and name tags for life, and a short correction habit that becomes automatic.
- Three syllables in Italian, four in most American mouths. Your family may say it one way and the school another, and both will feel correct to whoever is speaking.
- It signals Italian heritage clearly and immediately — a pleasure if that is your family's story, worth a thought if it isn't.
- 'Gio' overlaps with Giorgio, Giovanna and Giordano, so a shortened Giovanni may share a nickname with a cousin or classmate.
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Giovanni
Masculine · #123 in the U.S.
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 87,500 people named Giovanni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Giovanni in 2025?
- Giovanni ranks #123 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,939 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Giovanni?
- About 1 in every 581 US boys born in 2025 was named Giovanni — 2,939 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.
Sawyer#122 · Carson#124 · Emmett#121 · Dean#125 · Graham#120 · George#126 · Milo#119 · Landon#127
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Giovanni? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Giovanni and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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