Jovanna
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Jovanna sits where two languages meet. Serbian and Croatian have Jovana, the feminine of Jovan, one of the most common names in the Balkans; Italian has Giovanna, the feminine of Giovanni. Both are the same name as Jane, both are said with a soft opening consonant, and the American spelling Jovanna can descend from either. Its peak is 2001.
How old is the name Jovanna?
Jovanna first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Jovanna alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 3,100 people named Jovanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jovanna most popular?
Jovanna peaked in 2001, reaching #1050 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,672 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Jovanna
The story of Jovanna
Jovan is the standard Serbian and Macedonian form of John and one of the most-used men's names in the region; Jovana, its feminine, is correspondingly common. Italian Giovanni and Giovanna developed independently from the same Latin. Both communities emigrated to America in large numbers, and both brought their forms. American orthography then flattened the difference: Giovanna requires the Italian gi- to be understood, and families who wanted the sound without the explanation wrote Jovanna instead. The spelling is therefore a specifically American solution, arrived at from two directions, and it rose through the 1990s alongside a general fashion for Italian-sounding girls' names.
Meaning
God is gracious
Hebrew Yohanan, 'Yahweh is gracious', gives Greek Ioannes and Latin Iohannes, from which every European form descends. The South Slavic Jovan preserves the v that Latin Iohannes had and English John lost; Italian Giovanni does the same. So Jovanna and Giovanna are closer to the Latin than Jane or Joan are, despite looking further from it. The meaning has been stable for three thousand years.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Iohannes
- Jovana
- Jovanna
Related forms: Jovana · Giovanna · Juana · Joanna · Jeanne
Pronouncing Jovanna
joh-VAH-nah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with an English j at the front. The Serbian original uses a y sound instead — yo-VAH-nah — and Italian Giovanna gives joh-VAHN-nah with a fuller double n. All three are heard on American bearers.
Nicknames for Jovanna
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
- 1935
- Most girls named
- 2001204 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1050reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −4.5%21 in 2025, from 22
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.
Jovanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jovana in Serbian — same name
- Giovanna in Italian — related form
- Juana in Spanish — related form
- Joanna in English — related form
- Jeanne in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Jovannas among us
people named Jovanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Jovanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jovanna
- #5722
- Jovanna on the 2025 chart
- #931
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jovanna went to 21 girls in 2025, but Jovana is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 29, which makes it the 931st most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,791 places above the chart.
- Jovanna21
- Jovana8
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Jovanna itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lory test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jovanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lory climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lory's path sketches the road Jovanna is walking now.
Jovanna 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
Jovanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jovanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and shared with one of the most widely borne names in the world.
- Jo and Vanna are both available and both work as complete names.
- The spelling is readable in English without the explanation Giovanna needs.
- Jovana, Jovanna, Giovanna and Joanna all circulate and are constantly confused.
- The initial consonant is said three different ways depending on the language of the speaker.
- It is rare enough in the United States to be spelled out routinely.
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Jovanna
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jovannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Jovanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jovanna?
- Jovanna is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 29 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jovana.
- How popular is the name Jovanna in 2025?
- Jovanna ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jovanna?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Jovanna — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jovanna with classmates?
- Jovanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jovanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jovanna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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