John
Meaning and origin
From English John. First attested in 1729 as a spelling variant of the traditional Swedish surname Jon.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for John (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, John has been falling over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2015. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Boys |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 192 |
| 1999 | 177 |
| 2000 | 164 |
| 2001 | 147 |
| 2002 | 157 |
| 2003 | 132 |
| 2004 | 146 |
| 2005 | 149 |
| 2006 | 138 |
| 2007 | 154 |
| 2008 | 147 |
| 2009 | 151 |
| 2010 | 167 |
| 2011 | 162 |
| 2012 | 188 |
| 2013 | 180 |
| 2014 | 183 |
| 2015 | 200 |
| 2016 | 178 |
| 2017 | 177 |
| 2018 | 179 |
| 2019 | 148 |
| 2020 | 118 |
| 2021 | 126 |
| 2022 | 128 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls | Men and boys |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | – | 33,003 |
| 2000 | – | 31,868 |
| 2001 | – | 30,752 |
| 2002 | – | 29,727 |
| 2003 | – | 28,740 |
| 2004 | – | 27,802 |
| 2005 | – | 26,964 |
| 2006 | – | 26,189 |
| 2007 | – | 25,729 |
| 2008 | – | 25,221 |
| 2009 | – | 24,777 |
| 2010 | – | 24,332 |
| 2011 | – | 23,973 |
| 2012 | – | 23,588 |
| 2013 | – | 23,251 |
| 2014 | – | 22,934 |
| 2015 | – | 22,643 |
| 2016 | – | 22,352 |
| 2017 | 12 | 22,082 |
| 2018 | – | 21,865 |
| 2019 | 11 | 21,580 |
| 2020 | 11 | 21,195 |
John in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter John.Hi! My name is John.
- John har bott i Uppsala i tre år.John has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Jag ska fika med John i eftermiddag.I'm having coffee with John this afternoon.
- Johns mamma är lärare.John's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Johns mamma is John's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about John
How do you pronounce John in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear John from a native speaker's recording. J is said like the English y.
What does the name John mean?
From English John. First attested in 1729 as a spelling variant of the traditional Swedish surname Jon.
How popular is John in Sweden?
128 babies were named John in 2022. In 2020, 21,206 people in Sweden had John as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been falling lately and peaked in 2015 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.