Joffre
Of French origin, a masculine given name potentially derived from "Geoffrey".
Name Census estimates that about 65 living Americans carry the first name Joffre. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joffre today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joffre births was 1917 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joffre. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Joffre. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
65
~ 1 in 5,273,144 Americans
Peak year
1917
37 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2005 SSA rank
#12,289
Tracked since 1914
Census
Joffre in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 434 people with the first name Joffre, which placed it at #22,808 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
#22,808
National first-name rank
People counted
434
434 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
66.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joffre
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joffre is Hispanic at 66.1%. The next largest groups are White (21.2%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Joffre 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 Joffre at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino66.1% · 287
- White21.2% · 92
- Black or African American8.3% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 11
- Two or more races1.8% · 8
Popularity
Joffre: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joffre from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 115 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joffre 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 Joffre during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joffres live
Origin
Meaning and history of Joffre
The name Joffre originates from the French language and culture, with its earliest recorded use dating back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to be a variant of the Old French name "Gaufrid," which itself is derived from the Germanic words "gau," meaning "region," and "frid," meaning "peace."
In its original form, Gaufrid was a compound name that could be interpreted as "peaceful ruler of the region" or "the peacekeeper of the land." Over time, the name evolved through various spellings, such as Joffroy and Joffrey, eventually becoming the modern French form, Joffre.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Joffre can be found in the chronicles of the Frankish Kingdom, where a nobleman named Joffroy is mentioned as a loyal vassal to King Clovis I in the 5th century.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, the name Joffre remained popular among the French nobility and aristocracy. Notable individuals bearing this name include Joffre de Vitre (1090-1163), a French knight who fought in the Second Crusade, and Joffre de Plessis (1268-1325), a renowned scholar and theologian who served as the Bishop of Meaux.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the name Joffre gained wider recognition due to the fame of Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (1852-1931), a French military leader who played a crucial role in the Battle of the Marne during World War I. His successful leadership and strategic decisions earned him the nickname "The Victor of the Marne" and cemented his place in French military history.
Other notable individuals named Joffre include:
1. Joffre Dumazedier (1915-2002), a French sociologist and pioneer in the study of leisure and recreation.
2. Joffre Guerrón (1894-1986), an Ecuadorian painter and sculptor known for his vibrant depictions of indigenous life.
3. Joffre Pascua (born 1953), a Filipino painter and visual artist renowned for his abstract expressionist works.
4. Joffre Swait (1932-2022), a Canadian economist and pioneer in the field of discrete choice modeling.
5. Joffre White (1916-1988), an American baseball player who spent several seasons in the Negro Leagues.
While the name Joffre may not be as widely used today as it once was, it remains a part of the rich tapestry of French and European cultural heritage, carrying with it a legacy of nobility, scholarship, and military valor.
People
Joffre + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joffre 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
Joffre: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joffre?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 65 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joffre 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 5,273,144 US residents.
Is Joffre a common name?
We classify Joffre as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 193 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joffre most popular?
The single biggest year for Joffre was 1917, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joffre is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joffre in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 434 people with the name Joffre, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,808 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 Joffre 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 Joffre?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joffre appears almost entirely male. Of the 433 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Joffre?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joffre is Hispanic at 66.1%. The next largest groups are White (21.2%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Joffre most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Joffre in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.1% (287 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 Joffre in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joffre a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joffre 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 Joffre still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joffre 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 Joffre 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 named Joffre?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.