The JOHN surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	27,643	1161	0.01	102
United States (1880 census)	6,147	995	0.012	123
Change since 1880	+21496	-166	-0.002	-21
Other Countries
Australia	1,614	1012	0.01	99
United Kingdom	14,211	417	0.031	309

Top States for JOHN by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
New York	3,782	333	0.020	199
Texas	2,183	1003	0.010	105
California	2,126	1310	0.006	63
Florida	1,795	950	0.011	112
Pennsylvania	1,703	620	0.014	139
Top States for JOHN by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Alaska	286	171	0.046	456
New York	3,782	333	0.020	199
Idaho	227	600	0.018	175
Utah	360	688	0.016	161
New Mexico	282	531	0.016	155

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called JOHN live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called JOHN represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called JOHN in New York than any other state, but you are more likely to find a JOHN by picking someone at random in Alaska than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of JOHN

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From given name or forename

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the JOHN surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the JOHN surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of JOHN in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Mixed Race	990	3.58
White (Hispanic)	652	2.36
White (Caucasian)	12,992	47
Black/African American	5,556	20.1
Asian/Pacific	3,983	14.41
Native American/Alaskan	3,472	12.56

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the JOHN surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of JOHN in historical publications

JOHN. This baptismal name, -which is of Norman introduction, has rarely passed into a surname. The Lond. Direct, for 1852 affords but one instance. It has been, however, the source, in various modified forms, of a cousideralle number of names, some of which are amongst the most common in the whole circle of our nomenclature. Its immediate derivative, Johnson, and its Welsh genitive form, Jones, substantiate this assertion ; but we have besides Johns, Johues, Joanes, Jobncock, Janson, Jannings, Jennings, Jenks, Jeukyn, Jenkins, and Jinkius, Jenkinson, and perhaps Janes and Jenson. The Flemish nickname Hans from Johannes, seems to be the root of Hanson, Hancock, &c. Jack and Jackson might seem to claim the same parentage, but I think there is more reason for affiliating them upon James (See Jack).

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to JOHN

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as JOHN.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.