Yannis
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Yannis is given to both — 586 boys and 157 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Yannis is the everyday Greek form of John, and Greece uses it so heavily that it functions almost as a default — the name behind a very large share of Greek surnames.
How old is the name Yannis?
Yannis first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Yannis is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Yannis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yannis most popular?
Yannis peaked in 2023, reaching #2895 nationally. Today it ranks #3949, 1,054 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Yannis
The story of Yannis
Ioannis is the formal Greek form and Yannis the spoken one, and the split runs through Greek naming — a man baptized Ioannis is called Yannis all his life. The name's frequency shows in the surnames: Yannopoulos, Yannakis, Yannatos and dozens more are all built on it. It reaches American records with Greek emigration and is spelled Yannis, Giannis and Ioannis.
Meaning
God is gracious
From Hebrew Yohanan through Greek Ioannes; the compound joins a shortened form of the divine name to a root meaning to be gracious. Modern Greek contracts Ioannis to Yannis in ordinary speech.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Ioannes
- Yannis
Related forms: Ιωάννης · Giannis · John
Pronouncing Yannis
YAH-nees
Two syllables, first stressed. Greek gives the same shape.
Nicknames for Yannis
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 202243 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2895reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −3.6%27 in 2025, from 28
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.
Yannis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ιωάννης in Greek — transliteration
- Giannis in Greek — spelling variant
- John in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, North Carolina.
Yanniss among us
people named Yannis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 63,262 born in 2025 was named Yannis
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Yannis
- #3949
- Yannis on the 2025 chart
- #849
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Yannis went to 27 boys in 2025, but Yanis is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 79, which makes it the 849th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,100 places above the chart.
- Yanis52
- Yannis27
About 1 boy in 21,621 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 63,262 for Yannis 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 Jamien test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yannis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jamien climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jamien's path sketches the road Yannis is walking now.
Yannis 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 Yannis is headed
Yannis should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Yannis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yannis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that forms a complete sentence.
- Yanni is a warm short form with real American recognition.
- Extremely well used in Greece, so it has a very large community behind it.
- Yannis, Giannis and Ioannis are all in use and mark different registers.
- Americans will substitute John, which is the same name and looks nothing like it.
- The initial Y will be read as a consonant, which is correct but unfamiliar.
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What they receive
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Yannis
Masculine · #3949 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yanniss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Yannis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Yannis?
- Yannis is one of 2 recorded spellings. Yanis is the more common one — 52 births in 2025 against 27 for Yannis.
- How popular is the name Yannis in 2025?
- Yannis ranks #3949 among US boy names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yannis?
- About 1 in every 63,262 US boys born in 2025 was named Yannis — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yannis with classmates?
- Yannis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yannis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stewart#3949 · Tillman#3949 · Ashley#3949 · Alfonzo#3949 · Blane#3949 · Brayton#3949 · Omega#3949 · Rufus#3949
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yannis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yannis and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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