Johan

given name · Spanish · Latin script

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

Johan is a given name, with more bearers in Sweden than in any other country, where it is the 5th most common given name. It appears chiefly in Spanish and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: Dutch/German given name corresponding to John; source of patronymic surnames.

rarermore common
  • SESweden1 in 58◐
  • BJBenin1 in 400
  • NONorway1 in 557

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

≈290K ●

across 14 countries

Sources
268 ●

222K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 58 ◐

Sweden

Meaning & origin●

Dutch/German given name corresponding to John; source of patronymic surnames.

Sources 1

  • Tên Họ Người Việt Nam

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

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

Where Johan is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
SE Sweden#5175,036△48K rec.1 in 58175KJohan206
VE Venezuela#45255,11511 rec.——Johan6
ZA South Africa#4136,00034K rec.——Johan111
FR France—35,285△100 rec.1 in 1.9K35K—7
EC Ecuador#49721,546△79 rec.1 in 78522KJohan27
FI Finland—16,456△987 rec.1 in 33937KJohan61
US United States—15,44847K rec.1 in 22K15KJohan268
BE Belgium#9614,85813K rec.—15Johan172
NO Norway#1039,8109.3K rec.1 in 55730KJohan100
DK Denmark#1558,364△2.4K rec.1 in 7028.4KJohan153
AU Australia—7,9797.7K rec.——Johan152
DE Germany—7,6855.9K rec.——Johan149

Roughly 175K people in Sweden bear this name (about 1 in 58). Estimates project the name's share of our records onto national population, so each is only as good as the record base beside it — the Basis column gives that base; rows marked △ rest on fewer records than the estimate itself and are order-of-magnitude at best.

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

Languages●

  • Spanish428K23%
  • English281K15%
  • French238K13%
  • Dutch177K10%
  • Western Frisian155K8%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Spanish428,37223%
English280,97015%
French237,55313%
Dutch176,87610%
Western Frisian154,9078%

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◐

Johan is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French given name250K records spelled Johan18 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, South Africa, Belgium, Sweden

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Johannes, Johannès, Jo-Han, Johannés, Jöhan

  • Finnish given name146K records spelled Johan13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, South Africa

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Johannes, Joannes, Jõhẵn, Jõhån, Jóhan

  • Indonesian given name73K records spelled Johan4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Spain

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written 'Johan, Johan'

  • a separate given name46K records spelled Johan4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Sweden, Netherlands

    Also written Johán, Jöhan, Jóhan

  • Hindi given name37K records spelled Johan22 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, South Africa, United States, Sweden

    Languages: Hindi, Assamese, Bangla

    Also written Yohan, Johann, Yohani, জোহান, යොහාන්

  • Polish given name9.9K records spelled Johan42 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, Croatia, Czechia, Sweden

    Languages: Polish, Croatian, Czech

    Also written Johann, Yohan, Јохан, Йохан, Jokhan

84 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.

Other recorded senses●

Johan is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Finnish, form of jo (with enclitic-han)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In French, Forme germanique de Jean, du hébreu Yôḥānān, « Dieu fait grâce ».

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  • In French, Origine hébraïque, « Dieu a fait grâce ».

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  • In English, Biblical name

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

  • In German, männl. Vom., Schreibvariante von

    as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

0200400600800192019401960198020002020659 · 2016

Show as table
Johan in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1910–2025
Yearrecords
19105
19147
19159
19169
191813
19199
19207
192112
19229
19236
19245
19257
192611
19289
19295
193010
19327
19338
19348
193510
19368
19378
19387
19397
19418
19428
19466
19479
19488
19496
19539
19559
195610
19579
19599
196110
196211
19636
196417
196516
196611
196710
196812
196917
197017
197111
197213
197312
197415
197515
197624
197723
197831
197936
198030
198138
198247
198342
198447
198533
198627
198765
198858
198958
199040
199157
199269
199338
199469
199578
199692
1997117
1998150
1999180
2000172
2001393
2002447
2003388
2004395
2005440
2006476
2007530
2008616
2009573
2010592
2011520
2012566
2013496
2014478
2015514
2016659
2017577
2018480
2019481
2020458
2021438
2022501
2023517
2024555
2025516

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 100 years between 1910–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Johan III, b. 1537Henrik Ibsen, b. 1828August Strindberg, b. 1849Jean Sibelius, b. 1865Johan Ferrier, b. 1910Johan Galtung, b. 1930Johan Neeskens, b. 1951Harald Zwart, b. 1965Florent Malouda, b. 1980Pilou Asbæk, b. 1982
  • Johan IIIb. 1537SESwedish king (1537-1592)
  • Henrik Ibsenb. 1828NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian playwright and theatre director (1828–1906)
  • August Strindbergb. 1849SEnot in their usual nameSwedish writer and painter (1849–1912)
  • Jean Sibeliusb. 1865FInot in their usual nameFinnish composer (1865–1957)
  • Johan Ferrierb. 1910NLDutch-Surinamese politician (1910-2010)
  • Johan Galtungb. 1930NONorwegian sociologist and peace scholar
  • Johan Neeskensb. 1951NLDutch football manager and player (1951–2024)
  • Harald Zwartb. 1965NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian director
  • Florent Maloudab. 1980FRnot in their usual nameFrench footballer (born 1980)
  • Pilou Asbækb. 1982DKnot in their usual nameDanish actor

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 116 sources across 60 countries.

Official registers attesting Johan
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—175K#10
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)202074K—
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)—47K#40
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—37K#107
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)202435K#364
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—30K#139
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names202422K#116
FI FinlandDVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register)—16K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202015K#1,833
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)20259.8K—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—8.4K#86
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names—5.1K#143

Reference works 6

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • 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 · 1,318 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Johan?
We estimate roughly 290 thousand people bear Johan (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.
In which country does Johan have the most bearers?
We estimate about 175 thousand people bear Johan in Sweden, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled johan.
Where is Johan most common?
Johan is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 58 people carrying it.
How common is Johan compared with other names?
In Sweden, Johan is the 5th most common given name of 36,824 given names recorded there.
Is Johan a male or female name?
Johan 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 Johan mean?
Recorded meaning: Dutch/German given name corresponding to John; source of patronymic surnames.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/johan

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, “Johan” — the 5th most common given name in Sweden. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Johan parses inside a full name →