Joao

given name · Portuguese · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Joao is a given name, most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is the 2nd most common given name. It appears chiefly in Portuguese and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: Borrowed from Portuguese João. Doublet of John.

rarermore common
  • CUCuba1 in 12◐
  • GTGuatemala1 in 16
  • CZCzechia1 in 18

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈11M ●

across 12 countries

#3 ●

of 16M given names

14 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
659 ●

100M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 18 ◐

Czechia

Spellings & scripts●

JohnLatin · English●47M records
ΙωαννηςGreek · Greek●989K records
יונהHebrew · Hebrew●95K records
ЯнисCyrillic · Russian●26K records
요한Hangul · Korean●18K records
ᲯონიGeorgian · Georgian●6.8K records
জীবনBengali · Bangla●3.8K records
ዮሐንስEthiopic · Amharic●831 records
โยฮันเนสThai · Thai●161 records
ଜୀବନOdia · Odia●15 records
ՅանArmenian · Armenian●8 records
JoࣩhnArabic · English●1 records
ജവാൻMalayalam · Malayalam●0 records
ජීවනSinhala · Sinhala●0 records

17 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Juan in AR Argentina, ES Spain, MX Mexico and 6 more, John in US United States, GB United Kingdom, PH Philippines and 5 more, Jan in PL Poland, CZ Czechia, DK Denmark and 1 more and Sebastian in DE Germany, EC Ecuador.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Borrowed from Portuguese João. Doublet of John.

Sources 2

Attested across 28 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Joao is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
AR Argentina#212,961,3007.5M rec.—5.7KJuan239
MX Mexico#35,288,3114.2M rec.—4.7KJuan302
GB United Kingdom#14,533,2514M rec.—1.1KJohn396
BR Brazil#33,430,6084.4M rec.1 in 623.4MJoao248
PE Peru#43,194,6532.3M rec.—555KJuan176
US United States#23,118,62055M rec.1 in 1073.1MJohn659
VE Venezuela#82,400,453870K rec.—21KJuan160
GT Guatemala#32,227,734180K rec.—3.1KJuan142
PH Philippines#32,098,1301.4M rec.—listedJohn240
AU Australia#11,965,7301.7M rec.—570John410
CO Colombia#21,937,062665K rec.—1.2KJuan277
FR France#11,910,4004.1M rec.1 in 361.9MJean474

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Portuguese42M92%
  • English3.5M8%
  • French67K1%
  • Spanish67K1%
  • ptbr25K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Portuguese41,644,55592%
English3,503,0278%
French67,4011%
Spanish66,8721%
ptbr25,1561%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Joao is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French given name82K records spelled Joao24 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written João, Joâo, Joào, Joäo, Joaô

  • a separate given name7.2K records spelled Joao15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Angola, India

    Also written João, Joáõ, Joāo, Joâo, Jôao

  • Italian given name1.9K records spelled Joao7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Angola

    Also written João, Joăo, Joäo, Joào, Joâo

  • Swahili given name1.6K records spelled Joao3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Angola

    Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

    Also written Jõao

  • Croatian given name1.5K records spelled Joao22 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Croatia

    Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian

    Also written João, Joaõ, Joăo, Joâo, Жоао

  • Indonesian given name1.2K records spelled Joao8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Peru, United Kingdom

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Joaó, Joāo, Jöãö, Joäo, Joâo

  • Czech given name1.2K records spelled Joao10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Czechia, Slovakia, United States, United Kingdom

    Languages: Czech, Slovak

    Also written João, Joáo, Joaõ, Joăo, Jõao

50 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Over time●

050100150192019401960198020002020135 · 2024

Show as table
Joao in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1918–2025
Yearrecords
191811
19198
19205
19215
19235
19255
19535
19688
19696
197019
197125
197217
197323
197424
197518
197620
197728
197826
197931
198029
198127
198216
198315
198413
198516
198617
198718
198820
198930
199027
199122
199230
199324
199429
199522
199618
199723
199831
199928
200041
200165
200252
200338
200447
200563
200663
200743
200861
200957
201036
201141
201238
201338
201448
201541
201651
201760
201857
201955
202076
202179
202296
2023107
2024135
2025121

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 65 years between 1918–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

120014001600180020002200João I de Portugal, b. 1357John II of Portugal, b. 1455João III, b. 1502John IV of Portugal, b. 1604Pedro V of Portugal, b. 1837João Bernardo Vieira, b. 1939João Lourenço, b. 1954João Moutinho, b. 1986João Félix, b. 1999Joao Grimaldo, b. 2003

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 72 sources across 38 countries.

Official registers attesting Joao
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)20223.4M—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—3.4M#4
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—3M#17
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes no Brasil API (Census 2010 + 2022)—3M#2
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)2020247K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—20K#4
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20208.8K#2,661
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)20244K#618
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names20243.5K#344
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—895#3,079
ES SpainINE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—813#1,474
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—664#2,098

Reference works 5

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 707 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Joao?
We estimate roughly 11 million people bear Joao (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.
In which country does Joao have the most bearers?
Joao is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled juan.
How common is Joao compared with other names?
In Argentina, Joao is the 2nd most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.
Is Joao a male or female name?
Joao is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Joao mean?
Recorded meaning: Borrowed from Portuguese João. Doublet of John.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/joao

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Joao” — the 2nd most common given name in Argentina. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Joao parses inside a full name →