Yonathan
Masculine · “the Lord has given”
Yonathan keeps the Hebrew y that English replaced with a j, and the name is a complete sentence: the Lord has given.
How old is the name Yonathan?
Yonathan first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Yonathan alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 1,400 people named Yonathan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yonathan most popular?
Yonathan peaked in 2006, reaching #2037 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 2,212 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Yonathan
Ours, offered as ours. The J at the front of Jonathan, Jesus, Joseph, Jacob and Jerusalem is one of the odder accidents in European spelling: Latin used I for both the vowel and the y sound, medieval scribes lengthened the letter into J for clarity, and then English shifted the sound of J to the one it has now. So a whole shelf of Hebrew names acquired a consonant nobody in them ever had. Yonathan simply restores the original.
Meaning
the Lord has given
From Hebrew Yehonatan or Yonatan, joining a form of the divine name to a verb meaning to give. English J for Hebrew Y is a spelling convention that arrived through Latin and German and has nothing to do with the original sound.
Pronouncing Yonathan
yo-nah-TAHN
Three syllables with the stress at the end in Hebrew. Americans say YO-nuh-thun.
Nicknames for Yonathan
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
- 1983
- Most boys named
- 200868 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2037reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%24 in 2025, from 40
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.
Yonathan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yonatan in Hebrew — spelling variant
- Jonathan in English — same name
- Yonatan in Amharic — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, North Carolina, New York.
Yonathans among us
people named Yonathan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Yonathan
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 Brenten test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yonathan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brenten climbed just as high around 1984, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brenten's path sketches the road Yonathan is walking now.
Yonathan 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
Yonathan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yonathan 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.
- Yoni and Nathan are both complete short forms in their own right.
- It restores the original Hebrew consonant, which is worth knowing.
- Jonathan is the standard English form and will be written for him constantly.
- The initial Y will be replaced with a J by anyone writing from hearing.
- The stress differs between the Hebrew and American readings.
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What they receive
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Yonathan
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yonathans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Yonathan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yonathan in 2025?
- Yonathan ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yonathan?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Yonathan — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yonathan with classmates?
- Yonathan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yonathan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yonathan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yonathan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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