← Back to The High and Late Middle Ages
Boy · Hebrew, through Latin and German
Johann
Say it: YO-hahn
Meaning
German form of John, from Hebrew Yohanan 'Yahweh is gracious'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
For centuries the most common German baptismal name, often paired with a second name used in daily life.
Its wave through time
Most used in the 2010s
In the United States
- 5,101 babies given this name since 1912
- At its height in 2010, about 1 in 8,600 boys
- 92 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Johannes
| English | John |
|---|---|
| French | Jean |
| Italian | Giovanni |
| Spanish | Juan |
| Dutch | Johan |
| Swedish | Johan |
Famous bearers
- Johann Sebastian Bach, composer
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet
- Johannes Gutenberg, printer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Parish baptism registers
- Calendars of saints and name days
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.