Jonas

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Yonas in NO Norway, FI Finland, ET Ethiopia, יונס in IL Israel, FR France and יונש in HU Hungary.

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●

Attested across 26 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

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

• Lithuanian given name475K records spelled Jonas11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Lithuania, United States, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Languages: Lithuanian, Latvian

  Also written Jonna, Jona, Jönås, Yonne, Jonás

• Danish given name250K records spelled Jonas7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United States

  Languages: Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish

  Also written Jonás, Jonáš

• French given name72K records spelled Jonas15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Jonàs, Jonás, Jonáš, Jónás, Jônàs

• Czech given name35K records spelled Jonas18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, United States

  Languages: Czech, Hungarian, Slovak

  Also written Jonaš, Jónás, Jonáš, Jonás, Jónáš

• Finnish given name22K records spelled Jonas9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, United States, Estonia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Jonás, Joñas, Jonaš, Jónás, Jönãs

• Swahili given name15K records spelled Jonas11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Tanzania, South Africa, United States, Philippines

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho, Kinyarwanda

  Also written Joñas, Jónas, Jónás, Jonáš

• a separate given name9.8K records spelled Jonas9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Sweden, India, Ecuador

  Also written Jonás, Jónas, Jonàs, Jōnās, Jònas

89 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●

Jonas 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 German, Latinized form of the German given name Jobst in the example.

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• Biblical: ‘dove’. See }Jonah in main dictionary.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• Variant of Jonah, from the New Testament Greek form of the name. Both Jonah and Jonas were used by the

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• respelling of Yonis, with Yiddish possessive -s.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In Portuguese, Jonah (a book of the Old Testament)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Carl Jonas Love Almqvistb. 1793SESwedish romantic poet, early feminist, realist, composer, social critic and traveller (1793-1866)
• Jonas Basanavičiusb. 1851LTLithuanian activist (1851-1927)
• Jonas Salkb. 1914USJewish-American inventor of polio vaccine (1914–1995)
• Jonas Mekasb. 1922LTLithuanian filmmaker (1922–2019)
• Jonas Savimbib. 1934AOAngolan political and military leader (1934-2002)
• Jonas Gahr Støreb. 1960NOPrime Minister of Norway since 2021
• Basshunterb. 1984SEnot in their usual nameSwedish singer, record producer, and DJ
• Jonas Bloquetb. 1992BEBelgian actor and director
• Jonas Valančiūnasb. 1992LTLithuanian basketball player (born 1992)
• Jonas Vingegaardb. 1996DKDanish cyclist (born 1996)

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●

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 Jonas?

We estimate roughly 490 thousand people bear Jonas (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Jonas have the most bearers?

Jonas is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled jonas.

Where is Jonas most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Jonas is densest in Lithuania — about 1 in 21 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.

How common is Jonas compared with other names?

In Argentina, Jonas is the 453rd most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Jonas a male or female name?

Jonas 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 Jonas mean?

Recorded meaning: from the biblical male personal name Jonas, from Hebrew Yona, literally ‘dove’.