Joni

What Joni means

Diminutive of Joan, meaning “God is gracious”

diminutive of Joan || A clipped or hypochoristic form of Joanna, from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doubl

Source: Wiktionary, “Joni” (revision 92164908) and “Joan” (revision 93671796), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Joni?

US: Rising: up from #3389 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #1362 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1956, when 1,576 girls got the name (#204 that year). First in the US records in 1930.

How common

• About 1 in 14,351 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 2,282 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 1,278 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in OR (0.46 per 1,000 girls), UT (0.35 per 1,000 girls), TN (0.19 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Joni is #1796 in the US and #381 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 90.3% of US babies named Joni were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

Other spellings

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Juno179 US · 104 E&W
• Jana181 US · 54 E&W
• Juni71 US · 29 E&W
• Joana67 US · 6 E&W
• Juna50 US · 5 E&W
• Janai41 US
• Jonah39 US
• Jena23 US · 3 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Joni

Girls

• Sylvia#300“forest”^*
• Stevie#203Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #978 in 2015, #203 in 2025
• Margaret#112“pearl”^*
• Blair#169“field, plain”^*
• Scottie#126Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #3,533 in 2015, #126 in 2025
• Rosemary#251“dew of the sea”^*

For a brother

• Louis#249“loud; famous + battle”^*
• Malcolm#272Variant of Calum, meaning “dove”^*
• Walter#251“ruler + army, host”^*
• George#126“farmer, earth worker”^*
• Arthur#87possibly “bear”^*
• Wesley#52“west + wood, clearing”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under where there are enough, topped up with common names whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Joni’s. Place names are only included if they are in the top 300. Rank is US 2025.