Humanverse

Joshlyn vs Josie

American parents have registered 75,915 Josies since 1880, against 1,304 Joshlyns. Josie is still ahead, with 3,027 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Joshlyn against Josie, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Joshlyn Josie

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

Josie 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 1986, when Joshlyn had 29 and Josie had 218.

Side by side

  Joshlyn Josie
Total US births 1,30475,915
Most in one year 553,027
Babies in 2025 103,027
Estimated living today 1,30057,000
Median age today 2315
Peak year 20082025
Best rank 3,084th girls82nd girls
Rank in 2025 9,457th82nd
First recorded 19511880
Girls / boys 1,299 / 575,370 / 545

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 Joshlyns alive today are over 23; half the Josies are over 15. That is 8 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: Joshlyn and Josie.