Meaning and history
Jonathan comes from the Hebrew name יְהוֹנָתָן (Yehonaṯan), shortened to יוֹנָתָן (Yonaṯan), meaning “Yahweh has given,” from יְהוֹ (yeho), referring to the Hebrew God, and נָתַן (naṯan), meaning “to give.” In the Old Testament, Jonathan was Saul’s eldest son and was estranged from his father because of his close friendship with David; he died with Saul in battle against the Philistines. The name did not become common in English until after the Protestant Reformation, and a well-known bearer was the Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), author of Gulliver’s Travels and other works.
20062006: 14,387 births, rank #22
2007: 13,809 births, rank #23
2008: 12,905 births, rank #26
2009: 11,386 births, rank #29
2010: 11,140 births, rank #28
20112011: 10,254 births, rank #31
2012: 9,372 births, rank #34
2013: 8,577 births, rank #40
2014: 8,120 births, rank #44
2015: 7,660 births, rank #48
20162016: 6,982 births, rank #56
2017: 6,534 births, rank #55
2018: 5,779 births, rank #63
2019: 5,470 births, rank #64
2020: 4,757 births, rank #70
20212021: 4,465 births, rank #77
2022: 4,220 births, rank #79
2023: 4,094 births, rank #82
2024: 4,028 births, rank #83
20252025: 3,822 births, rank #89
Jonathan has unusual staying power. It appears in the US records as early as 1880 and still ranks #89 for boys in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 1988, with 24,349 births.