Humanverse

Jose vs Joseangel

American parents have registered 596,732 Joses since 1880, against 1,235 Joseangels. Jose is still ahead, with 3,678 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jose against Joseangel, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jose Joseangel

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

Jose has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2013, when Jose had 5,633 and Joseangel had 54.

Side by side

  Jose Joseangel
Total US births 596,7321,235
Most in one year 12,91654
Babies in 2025 3,67815
Estimated living today 518,0001,200
Median age today 3118
Peak year 20022009
Best rank 30th boys2,381st boys
Rank in 2025 95th5,861st
First recorded 18801972
Girls / boys 4,220 / 592,5120 / 1,235

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 Joses alive today are over 31; half the Joseangels are over 18. That is 13 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: Jose and Joseangel.