How popular is the baby name Joan in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Joan.

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Popularity of the baby name Joan


Posts that mention the name Joan

Unusual baby name: Treb

"Balloon guy" Treb Heining (in late 2024)
Treb Heining

Since the early 1990s, the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square has featured a confetti drop at midnight. The man behind the confetti? Treb Heining.

A self-described “balloon guy,” Treb has also designed balloon décor for major events such as the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and the Olympics.

Treb was born in 1954 to Bert and Joan Heining of California. His first name is simply his father’s name, spelled backwards.

The curious name Treb has never popped up in the U.S. baby name data, likely because most of the people called “Treb” are actually named Trebor, the reverse of Robert. More than 500 baby boys named Trebor are accounted for in the data.

Many of these Trebors were no doubt named after various Roberts. Dozens of the Trebors I found in the records, for instance, had fathers named Robert. Two examples…

Similarly, dozens of the females I found named Treba had fathers with -bert names (like Robert, Albert, Elbert, and Herbert). Two more examples…

What are your thoughts on the names Treb, Trebor, and Treba?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of a 2025 NBC New York news video

The most gender-neutral baby names in the U.S. in 2024

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In 2024, close to 2,700 names appeared in the U.S. baby name data both as girl names and as boy names.

Which of these names were the most gender-neutral overall?

To create a useful set of rankings, I focused on names given to at least 150 babies in total. I sorted these names by how evenly they were given to babies of both genders, and the following came out on top:

Female usageMale usage
1. Charlie50.3% (2,109 girls)49.7% (2,084 boys)
2. Arden49.5% (237 girls)50.5% (242 boys)
3. Justice50.6% (206 girls)49.4% (201 boys)
4. Akari50.7% (107 girls)49.3% (104 boys)
5. Kit50.8% (188 girls)49.2% (182 boys)
6. Huntley51.0% (102 girls)49.0% (98 boys)
7. Alexis48.7% (604 girls)51.3% (636 boys)
8. Kacey51.6% (225 girls)48.4% (211 boys)
9. Divine48.3% (97 girls)51.7% (104 boys)
10. Jael51.7% (148 girls)48.3% (138 boys)
11. Jelani48.1% (87 girls)51.9% (94 boys)
12. Ashtyn47.9% (81 girls)52.1% (88 boys)
13. Jules47.9% (81 girls)52.1% (88 boys)
14. Campbell52.1% (273 girls)47.9% (251 boys)
15. Iman52.3% (92 girls)47.7% (84 boys)
16. Dakota52.3% (1,155 girls)47.7% (1,053 boys)
17. Hollis47.5% (188 girls)52.5% (208 boys)
18. True47.5% (206 girls)52.5% (228 boys)
19. Blake52.6% (1,457 girls)47.4% (1,311 boys)
20. Brighton53.0% (88 girls)47.0% (78 boys)
21. Robin53.1% (351 girls)46.9% (310 boys)
22. Jamie46.3% (391 girls)53.7% (453 boys)
23. Joan46.1% (188 girls)53.9% (220 boys)
24. Sidney46.1% (117 girls)53.9% (137 boys)
25. Chandler46.0% (297 girls)54.0% (348 boys)

More than half of the above appeared on the 2023 list as well.

None of last year’s fifty-fifty splits were popular enough to make the cut, but Lou — given to 70 girls and 70 boys — came close.

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from Gallery 1 by Sarah Howells under CC BY-SA 3.0.

What popularized the baby name Arsenio in the late 1980s?

Arsenio Hall hosting "The Arsenio Hall Show" (1989-1994)
Arsenio Hall

The name Arsenio, which has been appearing in the U.S. baby name data since the 1910s, shot into the top 1,000 in 1989 and and stayed there for three years in a row:

  • 1992: 47 baby boys named Arsenio
  • 1991: 45 baby boys named Arsenio
  • 1990: 188 baby boys named Arsenio [rank: 743rd]
  • 1989: 397 baby boys named Arsenio [rank: 479th]
  • 1988: 124 baby boys named Arsenio [rank: 854th]
  • 1987: 83 baby boys named Arsenio
  • 1986: 21 baby boys named Arsenio

Here’s a visual:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Arsenio in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Arsenio

The variant forms Aresenio, Arsenial, Arseno, and Marsenio also popped up for the first and only time in 1989.

What caused this sudden interest in the name Arsenio?

Comedian and actor Arsenio Hall.

In 1987, he became the first African-American to host a late-night talk show with his 13-week stint on The Late Show. (It was originally called The Late Show with Joan Rivers, but, after Rivers was fired, the show was re-titled and featured a series of guest hosts.)

Audiences would have noticed him next in the hit movie Coming to America (1988), which starred Hall’s longtime friend Eddie Murphy.

Several months later, in January of 1989, he kicked off The Arsenio Hall Show — a hip, energetic alternative (“woof, woof, woof!”) to the other late-night talk shows of the era.

Notably, Hall’s show was one of the few on mainstream television to showcase hip-hop culture. Musical guests included N.W.A, Ice-T, Tupac Shakur, LL Cool J, Bell Biv DeVoe, Heavy D, Black Sheep, Kwamé, Tone Loc, A Tribe Called Quest, and Leaders of the New School. He also spotlighted R&B acts like Bobby Brown, En Vogue, New Edition, Troop, Jodeci, and Mariah Carey.

The Arsenio Hall Show was a breakout success. It was particularly popular with young urban audiences. Despite this, ratings began to slip in late 1993 (largely due to scheduling issues) and the show was cancelled in May of 1994.

So where does the name Arsenio come from? It’s a form of the ancient Greek name Arsenios, which is based on the ancient Greek word arsen, meaning “masculine, virile.”

What are your thoughts on the name Arsenio?

P.S. The name’s slight rise in 1983 and 1984 was likely due to Arsenio Hall’s time as a sidekick on an earlier late-night show, Thicke of the Night (1983-1984), which was hosted by Alan Thicke.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of The Arsenio Hall Show

Top unisex baby names of 2022

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Which unisex baby names were the most popular in 2022?

To figure this out, I did two things. First, I identified all the gender-neutral names in the latest batch of U.S. baby name data. (To qualify as gender-neutral, a name must be given to girls at least one-third of the time and to boys at least one-third of the time.) Second, I sorted those hundreds of gender-neutral names by total usage: male plus female.

The following names came out on top:

  1. Parker
  2. River
  3. Charlie
  4. Blake
  5. Emerson
  6. Finley
  7. Phoenix
  8. Remington
  9. Tatum
  10. Rory
  11. Dakota
  12. Ari
  13. Shiloh
  14. Alexis
  15. Armani
  16. Remy
  17. Salem
  18. Legacy
  19. Skyler
  20. Denver

The first four names — Parker, River, Charlie, and Blake — were also the top four in 2021.

The five names that entered the top 20 were Shiloh, Salem, Legacy, Skyler, and Denver. Four of the five qualified as unisex in 2021, but ranked lower on the list. Legacy, on the other hand, was slightly over two-thirds male in 2021.

The five names that dropped out of the top 20 were Hayden, Amari, Oakley, Reign, and Milan. All five failed to qualify as unisex in 2022. Hayden, Amari and Milan were given to too many boys; Oakley and Reign were given to too many girls.

Here are those top 20 names again, this time with total counts and gender percentages:

Number of babies*Percentage girlsPercentage boys
Parker6,24338.49%61.51%
River5,37935.55%64.45%
Charlie4,42052.53%47.47%
Blake3,01447.81%52.19%
Emerson2,97557.61%42.39%
Finley2,57152.74%47.26%
Phoenix2,33543.08%56.92%
Remington2,21735.14%64.86%
Tatum2,20252.32%47.68%
Rory2,18143.83%56.17%
Dakota2,13756.34%43.66%
Ari1,73641.24%58.76%
Shiloh1,54359.82%40.18%
Alexis1,53356.69%43.31%
Armani1,49646.86%53.14%
Remy1,41135.08%64.92%
Salem1,08763.75%36.25%
Legacy1,00065.00%35.00%
Skyler97358.38%41.62%
Denver96333.33%66.67%
*Male and female usage added together

So which names came next on the list?

The following, ranked 21st through 35th, all fell within both the girls’ top 1,000 and the boys’ top 1,000 in 2022:

  • Briar, 924 total babies
  • Azariah, 903
  • Drew, 896
  • Amiri, 880
  • Bellamy, 847
  • Ocean, 842
  • Jamie, 841
  • Sevyn, 792
  • Dior, 745
  • Chandler, 719
  • Tru, 710
  • Murphy, 709
  • Layne, 702
  • Justice, 643
  • Robin, 637

And here are the rest of the unisex names that had a combined usage of at least 200 babies (in descending order):

Quincy, Kingsley, Jessie, Sol, Khari, Ira, Landry, Joey, Campbell, Kacey, Arden, True, Yael, Jaylin, Shea, Harlem, Joan, Kodi, Hollis, Sidney, Shai, Jireh, Ripley, Laken, Bowie, Kit, Ever, Montana, Kasey, Kadence, Yuri, Jael, Azari, Gentry, Rain, Storm, Perry, Honor, Denim, Isa, Divine, Merritt, Dominique, Camdyn, Jelani, Cove, Ashtyn, Jean, Armoni, Jules, Brighton, Channing

Kacey was one of the few names that happened to hit 50/50 usage — exactly 202 baby girls and 202 baby boys — in 2022. Movie-fueled Marvel was another 50/50 name.

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from Gallery 1 by Sarah Howells under CC BY-SA 3.0.