Joe
Joe is ranked 883rd among boys in 2024 (272 births). Its best rank was 20th, in 1880.
- Rank in 2024
- #883up 25 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 2720.02% of boys
- Peak year
- 19368,023 births
- Best rank
- #20in 1880
- Since 1880
- 464,326people given the name
The story in the numbers
453,008 boys have been named Joe in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1936, with 8,023 births — 0.77% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 272 births in 2024, against 8,023 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1943, and the 1940s alone account for 16%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 92 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 11,318 girls have also been given it, 2.4% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Joe | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 7,098 | |
| 1890s | 7,482 | |
| 1900s | 10,466 | |
| 1910s | 38,250 | |
| 1920s | 62,676 | |
| 1930s | 71,468 | |
| 1940s | 72,013 | |
| 1950s | 62,620 | |
| 1960s | 53,385 | |
| 1970s | 24,947 | |
| 1980s | 16,508 | |
| 1990s | 11,907 | |
| 2000s | 8,203 | |
| 2010s | 4,548 | |
| 2020s | 1,437 |
In 1936, its biggest year
Joe was the 23rd most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1936 were Robert, James, John, William and Richard. See all of 1936.
Names that rose and fell with Joe
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Petepeak 1959
- Nedpeak 1939
- Shermanpeak 1950
- Raypeak 1926
- Carlpeak 1956
- Sanfordpeak 1929
- Dudleypeak 1931
- Edwardpeak 1924
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.