Humanverse

Yosef vs Yoselyn

American parents have registered 10,612 Yosefs since 1880, against 1,797 Yoselyns. Yosef is still ahead, with 413 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Yosef against Yoselyn, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Yosef Yoselyn

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

Yosef has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1951 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2007, when Yosef had 261 and Yoselyn had 186.

Side by side

  Yosef Yoselyn
Total US births 10,6121,797
Most in one year 470186
Babies in 2025 41312
Estimated living today 10,0001,800
Median age today 1317
Peak year 20242007
Best rank 606th boys1,308th girls
Rank in 2025 663rd8,362nd
First recorded 19511985
Girls / boys 0 / 10,6121,797 / 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 Yoselyns alive today are over 17; half the Yosefs are over 13. That is 4 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: Yosef and Yoselyn.