Jon
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Jon is given to boys far more often — 168,142 boys against 1,249 girls since 1880. See Jon as a boy name
Jon is not an abbreviation. In Iceland, Norway and Denmark it is simply how the name is spelled, and has been for centuries; the h that English insists on is a Latin import that the northern languages never took up. An American Jon may be a shortening, and a Scandinavian one is not.
How old is the name Jon?
Jon first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Jon alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 1,000 people named Jon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jon most popular?
Jon peaked in 1944, reaching #1381 nationally. See the whole 1944 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Jon
The story of Jon
Iceland still does not have surnames in the ordinary sense. A person's second name says whose child they are and changes every generation, so a man called Jon whose father was Einar is Jon Einarsson, and his own son is Something Jonsson and his daughter Something Jonsdottir; a wife does not take her husband's name because it would mean she was his daughter. The consequence that visitors find strangest is that the telephone directory is alphabetised by first name, since the second one is not a family's property. The system was normal across Scandinavia until laws in the early twentieth century froze the patronymics into inherited surnames elsewhere; Iceland declined to do it, and the old arrangement is still running.
Meaning
God is gracious
The Hebrew is a short sentence about God showing favor. It became the most productive name in Europe, producing Jean, Juan, Ivan, Sean, Hans, Giovanni, Janos and several hundred surnames, and the northern languages worked it down to a single syllable early, so this is one of the older shapes rather than one of the newer ones.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Johannes
- Jon
Related forms: Jon · Jon · Jon · Janos
Pronouncing Jon
JON
One syllable, said exactly as the h spelling. Icelandic gives the vowel a different quality and marks it with an accent, but the shape of the word is the same, and no language has ever pronounced that h.
Nicknames for Jon
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
- 1924
- Most girls named
- 195837 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1381reached in 1944
- Change vs 2001
- −28.6%5 in 2009, from 7
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.
Jon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jon in Icelandic — same name
- Jon in Norwegian — same name
- Jon in Danish — same name
- Janos in Hungarian — related form
Jons among us
people named Jon are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Jon sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Three letters, one syllable, and no possible ambiguity about how to say it.
- It is a full standard name in three northern countries rather than a clipping.
- The name behind it is among the most widely carried in the world.
- In America it reads as a shortening of the h spelling whatever the certificate says.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- A three-letter name gives nothing to shorten and no formal version to grow into.
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What they receive
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Jon
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Jons 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 Jon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jon in 2025?
- Jon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jon with classmates?
- Jon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
Jennifer#586 · Jessica#665 · Janet#2778 · Julie#872 · Joyce#1071 · Joan#1085 · Julia#131 · Jean#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jon and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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