Humanverse

Yosef vs Yoshio

American parents have registered 10,612 Yosefs since 1880, against 1,175 Yoshios. Yosef is still ahead, with 413 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Yosef Yoshio

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

Of the 105 years in which either name was published, Yosef for 74 years and Yoshio for 31 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Yosef Yoshio
Total US births 10,6121,175
Most in one year 47073
Babies in 2025 413under 5
Estimated living today 10,000190
Median age today 1334
Peak year 20241921
Best rank 606th boys790th boys
Rank in 2025 663rdunranked
First recorded 19511910
Girls / boys 0 / 10,6120 / 1,175

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 Yoshios alive today are over 34; half the Yosefs are over 13. That is 21 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 Yoshio.