Joan
Joan is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 188 births. Its best rank was 5th, in 1931–1933.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1880.01% of girls
- Peak year
- 193221,044 births
- Best rank
- #5first in 1931
- Since 1880
- 488,485people given the name
The story in the numbers
481,016 girls have been named Joan in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1932, with 21,044 births — 2.0% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 188 births in 2024, against 21,044 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1941, and the 1930s alone account for 36%. It has spent 114 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 41 of them in the top 100 and 9 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 7,469 boys have also been given it, 1.5% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Joan | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 121 | |
| 1890s | 267 | |
| 1900s | 863 | |
| 1910s | 7,021 | |
| 1920s | 45,351 | |
| 1930s | 173,439 | |
| 1940s | 117,708 | |
| 1950s | 85,179 | |
| 1960s | 36,676 | |
| 1970s | 6,480 | |
| 1980s | 3,300 | |
| 1990s | 1,858 | |
| 2000s | 1,003 | |
| 2010s | 941 | |
| 2020s | 809 |
In 1932, its biggest year
Joan was the 5th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1932 were Mary, Betty, Barbara, Dorothy and Joan. See all of 1932.
Names that rose and fell with Joan
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Delorespeak 1932
- Arlyspeak 1933
- Marlyspeak 1937
- Marilynpeak 1947
- Merlenepeak 1940
- Beverleypeak 1938
- Delorispeak 1947
- Darlynepeak 1935
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.