Meaning and history
This name comes from the Hebrew יוֹנָה (Yona), meaning “dove,” and was borne by the prophet in the Old Testament Book of Jonah, who was commanded by God to preach in Nineveh but fled by boat, was thrown overboard during a storm, swallowed by a fish, and emerged alive and repentant three days later. Jonah’s story was popular in the Middle Ages, the Hellenized form Jonas was occasionally used in England, and Jonah itself did not become common until after the Protestant Reformation.
20062006: 2,411 births, rank #170
2007: 2,510 births, rank #165
2008: 2,981 births, rank #136
2009: 2,718 births, rank #147
2010: 2,775 births, rank #143
20112011: 2,867 births, rank #144
2012: 2,955 births, rank #128
2013: 2,903 births, rank #132
2014: 2,920 births, rank #138
2015: 2,913 births, rank #143
20162016: 2,778 births, rank #150
2017: 2,524 births, rank #154
2018: 2,725 births, rank #145
2019: 2,693 births, rank #139
2020: 2,821 births, rank #128
20212021: 2,739 births, rank #138
2022: 2,754 births, rank #135
2023: 2,900 births, rank #124
2024: 2,893 births, rank #126
20252025: 2,828 births, rank #128
Jonah moved from #126 to #128 for boys between 2024 and 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2008, with 2,981 births.