Joe
A masculine name of English origin meaning "he will add".
Name Census estimates that about 217,107 living Americans carry the first name Joe. It is a predominantly male name (97.6% of registrations). The average person named Joe today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joe births was 1936 (8,266 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joe. 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 Joe with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Joe is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 11,318 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Joe have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
217K
~ 1 in 1,579 Americans
Peak year
1936
8,266 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#883
Tracked since 1880
Census
Joe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 275,871 people with the first name Joe, which placed it at #194 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
#194
National first-name rank
People counted
276K
275,871 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
91.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joe is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.4%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Joe 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 Joe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.9% · 168,012
- Hispanic or Latino21.4% · 59,015
- Black or African American11.8% · 32,574
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 7,996
- Two or more races2.0% · 5,587
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2,687
Gender
Gender distribution for Joe
Joe leans heavily male at 97.6% of total registrations, but 11,318 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Joe as a male name
- Ranked #883 in 2024
- 272 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1936 (8,023 births)
Joe as a female name
- Ranked #18,900 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1934 (265 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joe leans strongly male. 272,033 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 3,843 female bearers (1.4%).
Popularity
Joe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joe from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 74,184 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joe 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 Joe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 7,098 | 137 | 7,235 |
| 1890s | 7,482 | 200 | 7,682 |
| 1900s | 10,466 | 293 | 10,759 |
| 1910s | 38,250 | 847 | 39,097 |
| 1920s | 62,676 | 1,745 | 64,421 |
| 1930s | 71,468 | 2,417 | 73,885 |
| 1940s | 72,013 | 2,171 | 74,184 |
| 1950s | 62,620 | 1,844 | 64,464 |
| 1960s | 53,385 | 904 | 54,289 |
| 1970s | 24,947 | 454 | 25,401 |
| 1980s | 16,508 | 219 | 16,727 |
| 1990s | 11,907 | 76 | 11,983 |
| 2000s | 8,203 | 11 | 8,214 |
| 2010s | 4,548 | 0 | 4,548 |
| 2020s | 1,437 | 0 | 1,437 |
Geography
Where Joes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Joe, while New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,499 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joe
The name Joe is a masculine given name derived from the Hebrew name Yosef, which means "he will add" or "he will increase." The name has its origins in ancient Israel and is found in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Joe is a short form of the name Joseph, which was one of the most popular names given to boys in early Christianity. The name gained widespread use in Europe after the Middle Ages, with various spellings and diminutive forms emerging in different languages, such as Giuseppe in Italian, José in Spanish, and Josef in German.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joe can be found in the 16th century, when it began to appear as a diminutive form of Joseph in English-speaking regions. It is believed that the shortening of Joseph to Joe was influenced by the Dutch name Joo, which was a common variant of the name during that time.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Joe. One of the most famous is Joe Louis, the American professional boxer who held the world heavyweight championship from 1937 to 1949. He was born in 1914 and passed away in 1981.
Another well-known Joe is Joe DiMaggio, the American baseball player who spent his entire 13-year career with the New York Yankees. He was born in 1914 and died in 1999, and is considered one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
Joe Frazier, born in 1944 and died in 2011, was an American professional boxer and undisputed world heavyweight champion. He is best known for his epic rivalry with Muhammad Ali, culminating in the "Thrilla in Manila" fight in 1975.
Joe Hill, born in 1879 and executed in 1915, was a Swedish-American labor activist and songwriter. He was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and became a notable figure in the labor movement in the early 20th century.
Joe Sakic, born in 1969, is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who spent his entire career with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise. He is considered one of the greatest players in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Joe
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Joe Baca
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Joe Baker
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Joe Barton
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Joe Borowski
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Joe Breen
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Joe Brown
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Joe Carnahan
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Joe Carter
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Joe Cole
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Joe Courtney
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Joe Crede
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Joe Damato
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Joe Dante
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Joe Dimaggio
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Joe Donnelly
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Joe Frazier
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Joe Greene
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Joe Horn
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Joe Jackson
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Joe Johnston
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Joe Kapp
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Joe Kennedy
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Joe Mantegna
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Joe Mauer
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Joe Mays
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Joe Mcewing
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Joe Montana
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Joe Morgan
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Joe Morton
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Joe Nathan
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Joe Nemechek
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Joe Nussbaum
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Joe Pantoliano
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Joe Penny
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Joe Pesci
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Joe Randa
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Joe Ross
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Joe Roth
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Joe Sestak
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Joe Theismann
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Joe Thornton
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Joe Torre
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Joe Wilson
People
Joe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joe 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
Joe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 217,107 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joe 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 1,579 US residents.
Is Joe a common name?
We classify Joe as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 464,326 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joe most popular?
The single biggest year for Joe was 1936, when 8,266 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joe is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 275,871 people with the name Joe, or 91.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #194 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 Joe 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 Joe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joe leans strongly male. 272,033 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 3,843 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Joe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joe is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.4%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Joe most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.9% (168,012 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 Joe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joe a male name?
Yes, 97.6% of people registered as Joe 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 Joe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joe 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 Joe 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 are called Joe?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.