Jonathan
Masculine · “the Lord has given”
Jonathan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 870,866 boys against 3,574 girls since 1880. See Jonathan as a girl name
Jonathan is not a longer John. They are two separate Hebrew names that English shortened toward each other until people stopped noticing — John is Yohanan, God has been gracious, and Jonathan is Yehonatan, the Lord has given. The confusion is universal and completely wrong, and it is the single most useful thing to know about this name.
How old is the name Jonathan?
Jonathan was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jonathan alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 818,000 people named Jonathan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jonathan most popular?
Jonathan peaked in 1988, reaching #15 nationally. Today it ranks #89, 74 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yehonatan to Jonathan
The story of Jonathan
The Jonathan of the books of Samuel is the son of King Saul, and his friendship with David is described in terms the text reserves for very few relationships; the covenant between them, and David's lament when Jonathan dies in battle, are among the best-known passages in the Hebrew Bible. The name traveled into English with the Reformation, when families began taking names from the Hebrew scriptures rather than from the saints' calendar, and it went to America with the Puritans. It became so ordinary there that Brother Jonathan served for a while as the personification of the United States, the figure Uncle Sam later replaced. Jonathan Swift, writing in Dublin, carried it into English literature at about the same time.
Meaning
the Lord has given
Yehonatan joins a short form of the divine name with a verb meaning to give: the Lord has given. Nathan is the same verb standing alone, and Nathaniel says the same thing with the elements reversed — God has given. The meaning is not disputed anywhere. What is worth stressing is what it is not: it shares no root with John, which is built on a different verb entirely, and the resemblance in English is an accident of how both names were worn down.
Cultural footprint
Jonathan Swift (b. 1667) — Wrote Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Banks (b. 1947) — Breaking Bad's Mike
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Yehonatan
- Ionathan
- Jonathan
Related forms: יְהוֹנָתָן · Jonatán · Jonathan · Gionata · Yonatan
Pronouncing Jonathan
JON-uh-thun
JON-uh-thun, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle vowel reduced. The th is soft, as in the word the, rather than sharp. Hebrew moves the weight to the last syllable and keeps every vowel: yeh-ho-na-TAN.
Nicknames for Jonathan
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
- 198923,608 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #15reached in 1988
- Change vs 2022
- −9.4%3,822 in 2025, from 4,220
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.
Jonathan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יְהוֹנָתָן in Hebrew — transliteration
- Jonatán in Spanish — same name
- Jonathan in French — same name
- Gionata in Italian — same name
- Yonatan in Hebrew — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Jonathans among us
people named Jonathan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 447 born in 2025 was named Jonathan
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 Raymond test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jonathan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Raymond climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Raymond's path sketches the road Jonathan is walking now.
Jonathan has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Jonathan is headed
Jonathan 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.
Jonathan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jonathan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two of the strongest short forms in English are inside it, and Jon and Nate go in completely different directions.
- It has been in continuous use in English for four hundred years without ever becoming a period marker.
- Every language that received the Hebrew scriptures has a version of it, so it travels without translation.
- The story behind it is about loyalty between friends rather than conquest or piety, which is unusual in a biblical name.
- Jonathon is a common alternative spelling and Jonathan will be written both ways for life; the o in the last syllable is the one to watch.
- It is constantly assumed to be a formal version of John, and correcting that is a small speech most Jonathans give up on.
- Jon and John are said identically, so the short form solves nothing about the confusion.
- This spelling is recorded for girls too, though so rarely that a girl named Jonathan will be read as a boy on every form; Jonna and Nathania carry related roots without that.
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What they receive
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Jonathan
Masculine · #89 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jonathans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 818,000 people named Jonathan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jonathan in 2025?
- Jonathan ranks #89 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,822 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Jonathan?
- About 1 in every 447 US boys born in 2025 was named Jonathan — 3,822 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jonathan with classmates?
- Jonathan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jonathan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Micah#90 · Jeremiah#88 · Arthur#87 · Leonardo#91 · Gael#86 · Robert#92 · Kai#93 · Luka#85
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jonathan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jonathan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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