Joaquim
Hebrew-originating masculine name meaning "established by God".
Name Census estimates that about 816 living Americans carry the first name Joaquim. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joaquim today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joaquim births was 2017 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joaquim. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Joaquim with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
816
~ 1 in 420,042 Americans
Peak year
2017
40 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,915
Tracked since 1917
Census
Joaquim in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,158 people with the first name Joaquim, which placed it at #7,143 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,143
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,158 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joaquim
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joaquim is White at 69.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.9%) and Black (11.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Joaquim described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Joaquim at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.6% · 1,502
- Hispanic or Latino12.9% · 278
- Black or African American11.4% · 245
- Two or more races3.2% · 68
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 60
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 5
Popularity
Joaquim: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joaquim from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 230 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Joaquim remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joaquim by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Joaquim during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joaquims live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Massachusetts, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Joaquim, while New York, New Jersey, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joaquim
The given name Joaquim originated from the Hebrew language and culture. It is a masculine name derived from the biblical Hebrew name Yehoyaqim, which means "raised by Yahweh" or "established by Yahweh". The name can be traced back to the 7th century BC, when it was borne by several kings of Judah mentioned in the Old Testament.
The earliest known bearer of the name Joaquim was King Jehoiakim, who reigned over the Kingdom of Judah from around 609 to 598 BC. He is mentioned in several books of the Bible, including 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Jeremiah. Another biblical figure with this name was Jehoiachin, the son of King Jehoiakim, who also briefly ruled as the king of Judah.
During the Middle Ages, the name Joaquim gained popularity in various parts of Europe, particularly in Portugal, Spain, and Italy. It was often spelled as Joaquín or Gioacchino in these regions. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is Joaquim de Fiore, an Italian mystic and theologian who lived from around 1135 to 1202. He is known for his influential works on the interpretation of the Bible and his prophecies about the coming of a new age.
Another notable bearer of the name Joaquim was Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, better known as Tiradentes, a Brazilian revolutionary and martyr who was born in 1746 and executed in 1792. He is regarded as a national hero in Brazil for his role in the Inconfidência Mineira, a movement that sought to overthrow Portuguese rule and establish an independent republic.
In the field of music, one of the most famous individuals with the name Joaquim was Joaquim Rodrigues Antônio da Silva, better known as Joaquim Callado, a Brazilian composer and pianist who lived from 1848 to 1880. He is considered one of the pioneers of Brazilian nationalist music and is renowned for his compositions that incorporated elements of Brazilian folk music.
Another notable figure was Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, a Brazilian novelist, poet, and short story writer regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 19th century. He was born in 1839 and is known for his literary works that explored themes of race, social class, and the human condition in Brazilian society.
Joaquim Rodrigues, a Portuguese explorer and navigator, was born in 1497 and is credited with being the first European to sight the island of Taiwan in 1542. He played a significant role in the Portuguese exploration of the East Indies and the maritime trade routes in the region.
People
Joaquim + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joaquim as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Joaquim: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joaquim?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 816 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joaquim going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 420,042 US residents.
Is Joaquim a common name?
We classify Joaquim as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 938 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joaquim most popular?
The single biggest year for Joaquim was 2017, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joaquim is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joaquim in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,158 people with the name Joaquim, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,143 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Joaquim in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Joaquim?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joaquim appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,152 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Joaquim?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joaquim is White at 69.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.9%) and Black (11.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Joaquim most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joaquim in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.6% (1,502 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Joaquim in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joaquim a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joaquim in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Joaquim still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joaquim in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Joaquim can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Joaquim as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.