Humanverse

Jolette vs Jolynn

American parents have registered 4,620 Jolynns since 1880, against 751 Jolettes. Jolynn is still ahead, with 17 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jolette against Jolynn, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jolette Jolynn

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

Of the 89 years in which either name was published, Jolynn for 86 years and Jolette for 3 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Jolette Jolynn
Total US births 7514,620
Most in one year 258107
Babies in 2025 under 517
Estimated living today 7404,200
Median age today 1947
Peak year 20051962
Best rank 954th girls1,043rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked6,546th
First recorded 19541935
Girls / boys 751 / 04,620 / 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 Jolynns alive today are over 47; half the Jolettes are over 19. That is 28 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: Jolette and Jolynn.