Humanverse

Joelle vs Joesiah

American parents have registered 16,640 Joelles since 1880, against 644 Joesiahs. Joelle is still ahead, with 253 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Joelle against Joesiah, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Joelle Joesiah

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

Joelle has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1918 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2012, when Joelle had 243 and Joesiah had 41.

Side by side

  Joelle Joesiah
Total US births 16,640644
Most in one year 45641
Babies in 2025 25319
Estimated living today 16,000640
Median age today 2711
Peak year 20172012
Best rank 673rd girls2,869th boys
Rank in 2025 1,008th5,045th
First recorded 19182000
Girls / boys 16,115 / 5250 / 644

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 Joelles alive today are over 27; half the Joesiahs are over 11. That is 16 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: Joelle and Joesiah.