Humanverse

Joshlynn vs Joshua

American parents have registered 1,253,882 Joshuas since 1880, against 703 Joshlynns. Joshua is still ahead, with 4,773 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Joshlynn against Joshua, 1880 to 2025 0 12.5k 25k 37.5k 50k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Joshlynn Joshua

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

Joshua 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 2016, when Joshlynn had 35 and Joshua had 9,276.

Side by side

  Joshlynn Joshua
Total US births 7031,253,882
Most in one year 3544,308
Babies in 2025 84,773
Estimated living today 7001.2 million
Median age today 1533
Peak year 20161989
Best rank 4,157th girls4th boys
Rank in 2025 10,917th66th
First recorded 19841880
Girls / boys 703 / 04,953 / 1,248,929

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 Joshuas alive today are over 33; half the Joshlynns are over 15. That is 18 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: Joshlynn and Joshua.