girl's name
Joann
joh-AN
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 158,504
Ireland
#537
1995 births
Joann is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a simplified spelling of Joanna. Our data marks it stable, and it charts in only two of the seven markets we track despite 158,440 lifetime births.
- Joann is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1942, when 4,518 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 61,399 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1891.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Joann over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1890s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1890s | 22 |
| 1900s | 102 |
| 1910s | 593 |
| 1920s | 5,583 |
| 1930s | 34,832 |
| 1940s | 40,142 |
| 1950s | 32,738 |
| 1960s | 24,969 |
| 1970s | 9,861 |
| 1980s | 4,296 |
| 1990s | 2,071 |
| 2000s | 1,157 |
| 2010s | 723 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 367 |
What Joann means
Joann means God is gracious, carried from Joanna and so from John. The Hebrew joins a form of the divine name to a verb meaning to show favor.
Where Joann comes from
Joann strips the vowels from Joanna, the feminine of John, from the Hebrew Yochanan — God is gracious. Joanna is named in Luke as one of the women who supported Jesus and later found the empty tomb, and she is identified as the wife of Herod's steward, which places her unusually high in the social record. The family is enormous: Jane, Joan, Jean, Joanna, Johanna, Janet, Sinead and Siobhan are all the same name arriving in English by different national routes.
Joann in use
Joann peaked in the United States in 1942, when 4,518 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It now charts in two of the seven markets we track — 3030th in the United States on 54 births and 5218th in France — across 158,504 lifetime births. The 1942 peak places it in the wartime cluster with Judith, Carol and Linda.
How popular is Joann?
In 2025, Joann was given to 54 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Joann is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Joann is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Jo-Ann | Jo-Ann is Joann written with a hyphen, recorded mostly in France. | 53 |
Names that peaked alongside Joann
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Joann also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Joann over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Joann
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Joann in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Polish
- Joanna
Sibling names for Joann
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Joann — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Joann
What does the name Joann mean?
God is gracious, carried from Joanna and so from John.
Is Joann the same as Joanne?
The same name with a different simplification of Joanna. Both are twentieth-century spellings.
Which names are related to it?
Jane, Joan, Jean, Johanna, Janet, Sinead and Siobhan — all the same name by different routes.
How popular is Joann?
3030th in the United States, and our data marks it stable.
Is Joann a girl's or a boy's name?
Joann is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Joann?
Joann has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Joann?
Joann is usually shortened to Jo and Annie.
Is Joann a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Joann currently ranks #3,030 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.