Jon
- Pronunciation
- [Jon]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Variant Of John Or Abbreviation Of Jonathan Jehovah Has Been Gracious: Has Shown Favor. Sometimes Used In The French Fashion Hyphenated With A Second Name Like Jon-Carlo Or Jon-Paul
- Origin
- French
About the Name Jon
Jon is a variant spelling of John — one of the most enduring masculine names in Western history, derived through Latin Joannes and Greek Ioannes from the Hebrew Yohanan, meaning "Jehovah has been gracious" or "God is gracious." The simplified spelling drops the silent h of the English standard form, creating a cleaner, more modern silhouette while retaining the name's full phonetic identity. Jon is also understood as a short form of Jonathan, which carries the related Hebrew meaning "God has given." In French-influenced naming it has occasionally appeared hyphenated with a second element, as in Jon-Paul or Jon-Carlo.
Two notable bearers are on record. Jon Bon Jovi (born 1962) is the American singer, songwriter, and lead vocalist of the rock band Bon Jovi whose four-decade music career has produced 13 commercial albums, 130 million records sold worldwide, and a continuing international concert presence. Jon Stewart (born 1962) is the American comedian, satirist, TV host, and author whose 16-year tenure as host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show (1999–2015) made him one of the most iconic figures in American political satire and news commentary.
Jon first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1960 and peaked in 1968 at #65. It has demonstrated exceptional longevity, remaining in the top-1000 continuously through 2024, when it ranked #891 with 265 births — over six decades of unbroken presence. Total tracked births reached 72,902. Recorded variants are Jonn and Jonnie.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jon
US Popularity History (1960–2025)
Annual US births named Jon by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1964 with 4,912 boys named Jon (boy rank #78 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #951 for boys (246 US births). That's 873 places below its 1964 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Jon Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Jon the strongest states are Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #329 | 91 |
| 2 | Alabama | #437 | 111 |
| 3 | Arkansas | #485 | 50 |
| 4 | Kentucky | #566 | 55 |
| 5 | Tennessee | #570 | 113 |
| 6 | Utah | #597 | 20 |
| 7 | Oklahoma | #626 | 26 |
| 8 | South Carolina | #640 | 39 |
| 9 | Louisiana | #653 | 55 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | #654 | 33 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #1,011 | 96 |
| 2 | Arizona | #911 | 16 |
| 3 | Indiana | #902 | 42 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #886 | 39 |
| 5 | Illinois | #869 | 29 |
| 6 | Florida | #832 | 116 |
| 7 | New York | #832 | 131 |
| 8 | Virginia | #828 | 61 |
| 9 | Michigan | #792 | 59 |
| 10 | New Jersey | #790 | 44 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Jon in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Jon
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Jon.
- Jon Bon Jovi — Rock Singer (1962)
- Jon Stewart — TV Show Host (1962)
Looking for names like Jon?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Jon to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jon against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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