Rejoice
To take delight, be glad, or rejoice.
Name Census estimates that about 188 living Americans carry the first name Rejoice. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rejoice today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rejoice births was 2024 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rejoice. 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 Rejoice with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
188
~ 1 in 1,823,161 Americans
Peak year
2024
19 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,324
Tracked since 1997
Census
Rejoice in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 369 people with the first name Rejoice, which placed it at #25,627 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
#25,627
National first-name rank
People counted
369
369 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rejoice
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rejoice is Black at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.3%) and White (8.4%). 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 Rejoice 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 Rejoice at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American71.8% · 265
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.3% · 60
- White8.4% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 8
- Two or more races1.4% · 5
Popularity
Rejoice: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rejoice from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 84 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rejoice remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rejoice 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 Rejoice during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rejoice
The given name Rejoice has its origins in the English language, emerging during the late Middle Ages around the 15th century. It is derived from the verb "to rejoice," which stems from the Old French "rejoir" and ultimately the Latin "regaudere," meaning "to rejoice" or "to be glad." This name was bestowed upon children as a reflection of the joy and celebration surrounding their birth.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rejoice can be found in the 1583 baptismal records of St. Olave's Church in London, where a child named Rejoice Browne was christened. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Puritan families in England and later in the American colonies often chose biblical or virtue names for their children, and Rejoice was a popular choice among them.
In the 17th century, a notable bearer of the name was Rejoice Reade, born in 1685 in Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Reverend Samuel Reade and was part of a prominent Puritan family. Another early American with this name was Rejoice Thomas, born in 1703 in Rhode Island.
One of the most famous historical figures named Rejoice was Rejoice Newton, born in 1675 in Worcestershire, England. She was the daughter of Sir Isaac Newton, the renowned mathematician and physicist. Despite her father's fame, little is known about Rejoice's life, as she died at a young age.
In the 18th century, Rejoice Troughton was born in 1737 in Leicestershire, England. She was a notable figure in the history of Quakerism and was a prominent minister within the Religious Society of Friends.
Another notable bearer of the name was Rejoice Graves, born in 1716 in Connecticut. She was a member of the Graves family, which was influential in the early history of New England. Rejoice Graves married Reverend Samuel Worcester and became the mother of several children, including Samuel Worcester, who was a prominent missionary and advocate for Native American rights.
While the name Rejoice was most prevalent in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, it continued to be used sporadically throughout history. Its association with joy, celebration, and religious devotion has made it a unique and meaningful choice for parents seeking a name that reflects their hopes and aspirations for their child.
People
Rejoice + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rejoice as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rejoice: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rejoice?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 188 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rejoice 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 1,823,161 US residents.
Is Rejoice a common name?
We classify Rejoice as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 190 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rejoice most popular?
The single biggest year for Rejoice was 2024, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rejoice is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rejoice in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 369 people with the name Rejoice, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,627 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 Rejoice 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 Rejoice?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rejoice leans strongly female. 334 people counted with this name were female (90.3%), compared with 36 male bearers (9.7%). 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 Rejoice?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rejoice is Black at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.3%) and White (8.4%). 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 Rejoice most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rejoice in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (265 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 Rejoice in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rejoice a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rejoice 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 Rejoice still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rejoice 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 Rejoice 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 Americans are named Rejoice?
Want to know how many people share the name Rejoice? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.