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Joseluis vs Josephine

American parents have registered 332,458 Josephines since 1880, against 4,304 Joseluises. Josephine is still ahead, with 4,126 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Joseluis against Josephine, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Joseluis Josephine

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

Josephine 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 1987, when Joseluis had 95 and Josephine had 436.

Side by side

  Joseluis Josephine
Total US births 4,304332,458
Most in one year 1438,709
Babies in 2025 294,126
Estimated living today 4,200120,000
Median age today 2427
Peak year 20001918
Best rank 1,021st boys24th girls
Rank in 2025 3,757th53rd
First recorded 19511880
Girls / boys 0 / 4,304331,467 / 991

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 Josephines alive today are over 27; half the Joseluises are over 24. That is 3 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: Joseluis and Josephine.