Johnson
Masculine · “son of John”
Johnson is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,021 boys against 22 girls since 1880.
Johnson is the commonest patronymic in English — son of John — and John itself is a Hebrew sentence: God is gracious. It is a name built out of the most-used name there is.
How old is the name Johnson?
Johnson was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Johnson alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 4,500 people named Johnson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Johnson most popular?
Johnson peaked in 1905, reaching #322 nationally. Today it ranks #3379, 3,057 places below that high. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yochanan to Johnson
The story of Johnson
John was so common in medieval England that the patronymic formed from it became one of the great surnames. In America it also arrived independently as an anglicization of the Scandinavian Johansson and Johansen. Its use as a given name is nineteenth-century American, often honoring a family surname, and it peaked around 1900.
Meaning
son of John
Through John, from the Hebrew Yochanan — Yah, the divine name, and chanan, 'he was gracious'. The -son ending is the standard English patronymic. Johnson is among the most frequent surnames in the English-speaking world precisely because John was the most frequent given name.
How the name formed
- Yochanan
- John
- Johnson
Related forms: Johansson · Johansen · Jonson
Pronouncing Johnson
JON-sun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Johnson and Jonson are said identically.
Nicknames for Johnson
Moderate
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 198799 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #322reached in 1905
- Change vs 2022
- −30.6%34 in 2025, from 49
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.
Johnson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Johansson in Swedish — related form
- Johansen in Danish — related form
- Jonson in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Johnsons among us
people named Johnson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 50,238 born in 2025 was named Johnson
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Johnson 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 Johnson is headed
Johnson is easing off slowly — about 21% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Johnson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Johnson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- John behind it has a transparent meaning and unmatched historical reach.
- John is available as a short form that is a complete name.
- It records a real practice of carrying a family surname forward.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- It is extremely common as a surname, which can make the pairing awkward.
- It is strongly period-coded to the turn of the last century.
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What they receive
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Johnson
Masculine · #3379 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Johnsons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Johnson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Johnson in 2025?
- Johnson ranks #3379 among US boy names in 2025, with 34 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Johnson?
- About 1 in every 50,238 US boys born in 2025 was named Johnson — 34 in all.
- Will my child share the name Johnson with classmates?
- Johnson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Johnson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Art#3379 · Sampson#3379 · Kiernan#3379 · Benyamin#3379 · Quamir#3379 · Madhav#3379 · Tuff#3379 · Hubert#3379
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Johnson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Johnson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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