Humanverse

Jocelyn vs Jocelynn

American parents have registered 113,412 Jocelyns since 1880, against 6,725 Jocelynns. Jocelyn is still ahead, with 788 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jocelyn against Jocelynn, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jocelyn Jocelynn

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jocelyn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1900 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2012, when Jocelyn had 3,237 and Jocelynn had 359.

Side by side

  Jocelyn Jocelynn
Total US births 113,4126,725
Most in one year 5,304392
Babies in 2025 78885
Estimated living today 110,0006,700
Median age today 2116
Peak year 20072010
Best rank 50th girls720th girls
Rank in 2025 393rd2,173rd
First recorded 19001955
Girls / boys 113,061 / 3516,725 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jocelyns alive today are over 21; half the Jocelynns are over 16. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jocelyn and Jocelynn.