Jonas
From Hebrew, where it means "dove". Fewer than 500 Poles carry it, all of them men, and it sits past 1,000th in the rankings: most people here have never met one.
Jonas Pronunciation
Jonas is pronounced YO-nahs (/ˈjɔnas/).
What Jonas means
Where Jonas comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Jonas begins in Hebrew, where Yonah means dove. The prophet swallowed by the great fish carried that name. When the Hebrew scriptures crossed into Greek, Yonah was written Jonas, and the Greek spelling took root in German and Scandinavian speech.
Germans and Scandinavians made it their own. In Sweden and Denmark the form stayed close to the biblical text, while German families kept Jonas steady across generations. A dove is a small bird with an old set of meanings: peace after the flood, a messenger returning to the ark.
In a Polish class register the name sits without a diminutive, plain as it was given. Jonas has no Polish softening, no zdrobnienie to slip into. The dove stays a dove, and Yonah stays underneath, the Hebrew word for gołąb.
How many people are named Jonas
1 in 46709 men in Poland is named Jonas. 457 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1385 among male names.
Jonas's popularity over time
4 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1067 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2011.
Where Jonas is most popular
Jonas is most popular in Opole, 1072% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Podlaskie (+721%) and Lower Silesian (+244%).
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Opole2 boys born+1072%
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Podlaskie2 boys born+721%
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Lower Silesian2 boys born+244%
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Greater Poland2 boys born+151%
Jonas as a middle name
Jonas is a first name for 457 men in Poland and a middle name for another 102, an 82/18 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 704th, between Antonius (102) and Lewis (102).
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#702 Konstantyn103
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#703 Antonius102
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#704 Jonas102
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#705 Lewis102
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#706 Natanael102