Humanverse

Yoselyn vs Yoshiko

American parents have registered 1,797 Yoselyns since 1880, against 1,331 Yoshikos. Yoselyn is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Yoselyn against Yoshiko, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Yoselyn Yoshiko

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 91 years in which either name was published, Yoshiko for 56 years and Yoselyn for 35 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Yoselyn Yoshiko
Total US births 1,7971,331
Most in one year 18685
Babies in 2025 12under 5
Estimated living today 1,800210
Median age today 1748
Peak year 20071921
Best rank 1,308th girls793rd girls
Rank in 2025 8,362ndunranked
First recorded 19851906
Girls / boys 1,797 / 01,331 / 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 Yoshikos alive today are over 48; half the Yoselyns are over 17. That is 31 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: Yoselyn and Yoshiko.