How Many People Are Named Joy?
people named Joy are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 3,202 people in the US has this name
Based on 143,324 babies named Joy in Social Security records from 1883 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
⭐ Uncommon
Peak Year
2,945 births
Trend
Stable (last 10 years)
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
Simply from the English word joy, ultimately derived from Norman French joie, Latin gaudia. It has been regularly used as a given name since the late 19th century.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like Joy in English. Counting Joy and these spellings together, about 114,565 people alive in the US have the name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
Of the babies given the name Joy, 98.9% were girls and 1.1% were boys. The share of girls among babies named Joy rose from 86.9% in the 1890s to 97.5% in the 2020s.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Joy alive today is about 51 years old, and 42% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 38 and 68 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Joy first appears in the records in 1883 and was given most often in 1957, to 2,945 babies. In 2025, 774 babies got the name.
Babies given the name each year, 1883 to 2025
🏆 Rank History
Joy has never been one of the 100 most popular girls' names. Its best rank was #109, in 1974. In 2025 it ranked #419.
| Girls | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #419 |
| Best rank | #109 (1974) |
| Years in the top 100 | None |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #150 in the 1950s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Joy alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Joy were born in California than in any other state: about 9,767 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Joy was given 2.5 times as often in Hawaii, 1.8 times in Oklahoma and 1.3 times in Arkansas.
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