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The first name 
Joan

Joan is a female first name, but it has increasingly been given to boys for a number of years.

Joan is a well-known but special name!

Joan is a well-known name in the US, but is still special. It is currently only given to every ten thousandth girl, and therefore ranks at 1,637 in the SmartGenius statistics. This means there are 1,636 girls names that are more common, but also tens of thousands that are much rarer. In total, there are currently 476,373 people – children, adults and seniors – named Joan living in the United States, which is approximately 0.14 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Joan

What does the name 
Joan mean?

Joan is the medieval English form of the French name Johanne. It is derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan meaning ‘Yahweh is gracious’.

In Catalan, Joan is a male form of... the name John, also derived from Yochanan. Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain with the capital Barcelona.

Joan -
a popular traditional name in the U.S.

History tends to focus on the most famous and best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Joan is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, Joan has reached the SmartGenius top ranking #5 more than once, although the last time was some while ago, way back in the last century in 1933. But even though the peak of its popularity was many decades ago, the name Joan has been given to newborn girls every year since records began. Joan is of exceptional enduring popularity, conveying the special vibes of the20th century.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Joan was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Joan has arrived in the 21st century

The popularity of the name Joan peaked long ago, but the name has nevertheless arrived in the 21st century. In 2022, it ranked #717 in our statistics - perhaps a far cry from when your grandparents or great-grandparents were kids and Joan made it into the top ten more than once, but still: traditional names often prove to be perennial favorites - so, maybe it's only a matter of time before Joan tops out again.

Joan -
at home all over the USA, especially popular in Rhode Island

Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Joan. Because: There are women and girls named Joan in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Joan is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular female first names, for example in New York, where Joan ranks on place 16. The greatest chance of meeting Joan, however, is in Rhode Island, where one in 142 girls and women bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 327 women and girls and in Arizona, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 1,571 women and girls for their name before you once get Joan as an answer.

Joan has 4 letters 
and begins with a J

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter J is a particularly popular initial letter for girls' names. That’s because 6.8% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for girls’ names are A, S and M.

With four letters, the name Joan is shorter than most other given names. In fact, only 5.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly four letters. Just 1.2% of all first names are even shorter, while 93% consist of more than four letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

This means that with 6.8% of all girls' names that begin with the letter J, this first letter is much more common than the other letters on average. And Jennifer is the girls' name starting with J, which is the most common of all.

Other names with 
J, o, a and n

If you take all the letters in the name Joan – J, o, a and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Ajon or Jona.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Joan

If your name is Joan and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Joan

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Joan, you can simply say:

Joker

Orange

Apple

Nut

This is how the name Joan is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Joan in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Joan

Joan

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Joan

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Joan is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

J
O
A
N

Have you ever waved the name Joan

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

J
O
A
N

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Joan sounds like this: