Ion
Ion was given to 14 boys in 2025, #6,246 among boys’ names; 314 Americans have been recorded with it since 1928 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ion by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ion mean?
Wiktionary, Romanian section
Ion is “a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English John”
From Ioan, from Old Church Slavonic Іѡаннъ (Ioannŭ), from Ancient Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), a contraction of the Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yôḥānān).
/iˈon/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Romanian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ion?
#6,246 among boys’ names, 2025
Ion rose from #7,246 in 2015 to #6,246 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 5.7 to 8.2 per million.
15 babies in 2023, the peak
Ion peaked in 2023, when 15 boys were given it, #6,037 among boys’ names. The 14 births of 2025 are 93% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #6,246 | 8.2 |
| 2024 | 9 | #8,591 | 5.2 |
| 2023 | 15 | #6,037 | 8.8 |
| 2022 | 5 | #13,083 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 9 | #8,427 | 5.1 |
| 2020 | 12 | #6,770 | 7.0 |
| 2019 | 13 | #6,553 | 7.2 |
| 2018 | 12 | #6,860 | 6.6 |
| 2017 | 6 | #11,291 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 8 | #9,177 | 4.2 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #7,246 | 5.7 |
| 2014 | 11 | #7,229 | 5.7 |
| 2013 | 9 | #8,360 | 4.8 |
| 2012 | 6 | #11,324 | 3.2 |
| 2011 | 5 | #13,036 | 2.6 |
| 2010 | 6 | #11,259 | 3.1 |
| 2009 | 5 | #13,198 | 2.5 |
| 2008 | 8 | #9,312 | 3.9 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,455 | 4.3 |
| 2003 | 8 | #8,125 | 4.0 |
| 2002 | 7 | #8,804 | 3.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #9,724 | 3.1 |
| 2000 | 7 | #8,535 | 3.6 |
| 1999 | 5 | #10,537 | 2.6 |
| 1998 | 8 | #7,096 | 4.2 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,319 | 3.2 |
| 1995 | 5 | #9,395 | 2.6 |
| 1994 | 6 | #8,153 | 3.1 |
| 1993 | 5 | #9,276 | 2.5 |
| 1991 | 5 | #8,711 | 2.5 |
| 1984 | 6 | #5,870 | 3.3 |
| 1982 | 8 | #4,765 | 4.4 |
| 1980 | 6 | #5,822 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,641 | 3.5 |
| 1975 | 8 | #4,094 | 5.1 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,539 | 3.2 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,742 | 3.8 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,662 | 3.7 |
| 1969 | 7 | #3,740 | 3.9 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,386 | 2.9 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,198 | 2.8 |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,423 | 4.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ion a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ion has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 42 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ion: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ion, and how old are they?
An estimated 299 Americans named Ion and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 7 and 32. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,714 people named Ion (49 women and girls, 1,665 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 241 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 263,141 babies since 1880, Ion is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 14 of their 4,024 babies (<1%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ion
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ion and names like it
- Compare Ion and IanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sIon peaked in 2023.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Ion: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Ion.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ion alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with IMost given first.