Jonas
Masculine · “Dove”
Jonas is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 28,560 boys against 28 girls since 1880.
Jonas is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew name Yonah, and it is the spelling the King James translators used when they wrote of "the prophet Jonas." It traveled from scripture into everyday use across Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic, where it has been a household name for centuries. Two syllables, one long open vowel, and no part of it that an English speaker has to be taught.
How old is the name Jonas?
Jonas was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jonas alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 25,000 people named Jonas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jonas most popular?
Jonas peaked in 2008, reaching #273 nationally. Today it ranks #599, 326 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Jonas appears on these lists:
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Yonah to Jonas
The story of Jonas
The name begins as Yonah in Hebrew, borne by the prophet who fled to sea and was swallowed by a great fish. When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, Yonah became Iōnas, and Latin kept it as Jonas — which is why early English Bibles, including the King James, print Jonas rather than Jonah in the New Testament. From Latin it settled permanently into German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, French and Portuguese, where it never really went away. There is a second road to the same spelling: in Lithuanian, Jonas is the ordinary form of John, descended from Johannes rather than from Yonah, and it has long been one of the most-used men's names in the country.
Meaning
Dove
From Hebrew yonah, the bird. The prophet of the Book of Jonah carries it; Greek-speaking translators rendered it Iōnas, and Latin passed that on as Jonas.
How the name formed
- Yonah
- Iōnas
- Jonas
- Jonah
Related forms: Yonah · Jonah · Jonás · Giona · Ionas · Jonas
Pronouncing Jonas
JOH-nus
Standard American English puts the stress on the first syllable. In German, Swedish and Lithuanian the J is a Y sound and the second syllable keeps its vowel: YOH-nahs. Both are correct in their own places, and families with European ties often use the second.
Nicknames for Jonas
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2007979 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #273reached in 2008
- Change vs 2022
- −11.9%476 in 2025, from 540
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.
Jonas in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yonah in Hebrew — same name
- Jonah in English — related form
- Jonás in Spanish — spelling variant
- Giona in Italian — same name
- Ionas in Greek — transliteration
- Jonas in Lithuanian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Jonass among us
people named Jonas are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,588 born in 2025 was named Jonas
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 Quincy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jonas's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Quincy climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Quincy's path sketches the road Jonas is walking now.
Jonas 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 Jonas is headed
Jonas should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Jonas beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jonas in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, with no silent letters and no fork in the road for a listener writing it down.
- In continuous use across German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Lithuanian, so it crosses borders without needing translation.
- A documented history running from the Hebrew Bible through Greek and Latin scripture into modern Europe.
- Present on the US charts across the entire span of national record-keeping, without ever becoming a name every classroom has.
- Jonas and Jonah are constantly mistaken for each other in the US, since both are current and both trace to the same prophet. Expect to spell it fairly often, and to correct the occasional Jonah in writing.
- The final s makes possessives and plurals slightly clumsy — Jonas's book, the Jonas family — which is a minor lifelong friction rather than a real problem.
- The Jonas Brothers made the name widely recognized as a surname, and some people will hear it that way first. That association has been fading with time.
- Pronunciation shifts abroad: JOH-nus in the US, YOH-nahs in Germany and Lithuania. Worth deciding which one your family will use, especially if relatives will say it differently.
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What they receive
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Jonas
Masculine · #599 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jonass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 25,000 people named Jonas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jonas in 2025?
- Jonas ranks #599 among US boy names in 2025, with 476 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jonas?
- About 1 in every 3,588 US boys born in 2025 was named Jonas — 476 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jonas with classmates?
- Jonas will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jonas
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Krew#599 · Kolter#599 · Alden#598 · Kason#597 · Louie#596 · Caiden#602 · Reese#602 · Mohammed#595
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jonas? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jonas and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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