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Johannah vs Johnie

American parents have registered 26,074 Johnies since 1880, against 3,113 Johannahs. But in 2025 it was Johannah that was commoner, 24 babies to 15.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Johannah against Johnie, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Johannah Johnie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Johnie for 106 years and Johannah for 40 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Johannah Johnie
Total US births 3,11326,074
Most in one year 110854
Babies in 2025 2415
Estimated living today 2,7004,900
Median age today 2669
Peak year 20101920
Best rank 1,847th girls190th boys
Rank in 2025 5,238th7,679th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 3,113 / 05,144 / 20,930

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Johnies alive today are over 69; half the Johannahs are over 26. That is 43 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Johannah Johnie
England and Wales 356

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Johannah and Johnie.