Boy · Hebrew
Jonathan
Say it: JON-uh-thun
Meaning
Hebrew Yehonatan, 'YHWH has given'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A Puritan name that stayed common in America and peaked in the 1980s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1980s
In the United States
- 853,557 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1985, about 1 in 77 boys
- 4,698 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- 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: Johnathan, Jonathon
| French | Jonathan |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Jonatán |
| Italian | Gionata |
| Portuguese | Jônatas |
| German | Jonathan |
| Polish | Jonatan |
| Hebrew | Yonatan |
| Hebrew | Yehonatan |
Famous bearers
- Jonathan, son of Saul and friend of David
- Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist
- Jonathan Edwards, American preacher and theologian
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Colonial records of the Americas
- 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.