Yohan
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Yohan is one of the many doors into the oldest continuously used name in the Western world — the Hebrew Yohanan, which reached English as John, Spanish as Juan and Russian as Ivan. This particular spelling is at home in French, in Spanish-speaking countries, and in Korea, where 요한 is the standard form of John. Two syllables, a vowel at each end, and no silent letters to explain.
How old is the name Yohan?
Yohan first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Yohan is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,800 people named Yohan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yohan most popular?
Yohan peaked in 2024, reaching #1160 nationally. Today it ranks #1256, 96 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Yohan
The story of Yohan
The name begins as Hebrew Yohanan, carried by several figures in the Hebrew Bible and later by John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Greek-speaking Christians wrote it Iōannēs, Latin made it Iohannes, and from there it split into hundreds of national forms — Johannes in German, Jean in French, Juan in Spanish, Ivan in the Slavic languages. Yohan is a modern spelling that keeps the original Y of the Hebrew rather than the J that Latin script later introduced. It is used in France alongside Yoann and Yohann, across Latin America, and in Korea, where Christian families have used it for generations as the romanization of 요한.
Meaning
God is gracious
From the Hebrew Yohanan, built from the divine name and a root meaning to be gracious or show favor.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Iōannēs
- Iohannes
- Johannes
- Yohan
Related forms: Yohanan · John · Juan · Yoann · Johann · Ivan
Pronouncing Yohan
yo-HAHN
Also said YO-hahn with the stress in front. French speakers say it roughly yo-AHN, letting the h disappear entirely. All three are current, so it is worth deciding which one you will offer when people ask.
Nicknames for Yohan
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
- 1980
- Most boys named
- 2024180 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1160reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −12.2%158 in 2025, from 180
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.
Yohan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yohanan in Hebrew — transliteration
- John in English — same name
- Juan in Spanish — same name
- Yoann in French — spelling variant
- Johann in German — same name
- Ivan in Russian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Yohans among us
people named Yohan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,811 born in 2025 was named Yohan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Yohan
- #1256
- Yohan on the 2025 chart
- #751
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Yohan went to 158 boys in 2025, but Yohann is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 178, which makes it the 751st most-given boys’ name of the year — 505 places above the chart.
- Yohan158
- Yohann20
About 1 boy in 9,596 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,811 for Yohan 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 Coltin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yohan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Coltin climbed just as high around 2001, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Coltin's path sketches the road Yohan is walking now.
Yohan is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Yohan is headed
Yohan looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 47% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Yohan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yohan 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 — no silent letters, no doubled consonants to dictate.
- Belongs to the John family, so it connects instantly to Juan, Jean, Ivan and Johannes in a mixed-language family.
- The meaning is documented rather than guessed, and has been read the same way for well over two thousand years.
- Used as a real given name in French, Spanish-speaking and Korean communities alike, so it travels without becoming a different name.
- It competes with Yohann, Yoann, Johan and Johann, and the similar-sounding Rohan. Expect to spell it aloud fairly often, and to see mail arrive with an extra n.
- Stress placement genuinely varies between yo-HAHN, YO-hahn and the French yo-AHN. Nothing is wrong, but a child may hear several versions of their own name before settling on one.
- Still uncommon enough that a Yohan is likely to be the only one in his class — good for distinctiveness, and it means the name will usually need a moment of introduction.
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Yohan
Masculine · #1256 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yohans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Yohan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Yohan?
- Yohan is the most-used spelling in US records — 158 of the 178 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Yohann.
- How popular is the name Yohan in 2025?
- Yohan ranks #1256 among US boy names in 2025, with 158 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yohan?
- About 1 in every 10,811 US boys born in 2025 was named Yohan — 158 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yohan with classmates?
- Yohan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yohan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malaki#1256 · Aven#1256 · Jerome#1256 · West#1252 · Jordy#1260 · Monroe#1260 · Emrys#1260 · Brecken#1252
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yohan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yohan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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