Joley
A feminine diminutive of Jolie, meaning beautiful or pretty.
Name Census estimates that about 361 living Americans carry the first name Joley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Joley today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joley births was 2009 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joley. 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 Joley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
361
~ 1 in 949,458 Americans
Peak year
2009
25 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,217
Tracked since 1968
Census
Joley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 408 people with the first name Joley, which placed it at #23,859 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
#23,859
National first-name rank
People counted
408
408 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joley is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.8%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Joley 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 Joley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.0% · 310
- Hispanic or Latino8.8% · 36
- Two or more races6.6% · 27
- Black or African American3.2% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 9
Popularity
Joley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joley from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 152 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joley 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 Joley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joleys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Joley
The name Joley is a modern variation of the English name Jolene, which itself is a combination of the names Jole and Arlene. The name Jole is derived from the Old French name Jolie, meaning "pretty" or "beautiful." The first recorded use of the name Joley dates back to the late 20th century.
While the name Joley does not have a long historical lineage, its roots can be traced back to the medieval era when the Old French name Jolie was commonly used. Jolie was a feminine form of the French word "joli," meaning "pretty" or "attractive." It was often given to girls who were considered to be particularly beautiful or charming.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Joley was Joley Wood, a British actress born in 1972. She appeared in several television shows and films throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including the popular BBC series "Casualty."
Another notable figure with the name Joley was Joley Durie, an Australian professional golfer born in 1980. She won several tournaments on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour during her career, which spanned from the late 1990s to the early 2010s.
In the literary world, Joley Scott was an American author and illustrator of children's books. She published several works in the early 2000s, including "Moosetache" and "The Enchanted Knickers."
Joley Black was a Canadian singer-songwriter born in 1982. She released several albums in the 2000s and was known for her blend of folk and alternative rock styles.
Joley Cragg was a British artist and sculptor born in 1953. Her works often explored themes of nature and the environment, and she held numerous exhibitions throughout her career.
It is important to note that while the name Joley has gained some popularity in recent decades, it does not have a long and well-documented historical lineage like many other names. However, its origins can be traced back to the Old French name Jolie, which was commonly used during the medieval period.
People
Joley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joley 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
Joley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 361 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joley 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 949,458 US residents.
Is Joley a common name?
We classify Joley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 373 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joley most popular?
The single biggest year for Joley was 2009, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joley 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 Joley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 408 people with the name Joley, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,859 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 Joley 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 Joley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joley leans strongly female. 391 people counted with this name were female (94.7%), compared with 22 male bearers (5.3%). 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 Joley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joley is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.8%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Joley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.0% (310 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 Joley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joley in the SSA data are female. 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 Joley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joley 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 Joley 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 Joley as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Joley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.