How popular is the baby name Joseph 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 Joseph.

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Popularity of the baby name Joseph


Posts that mention the name Joseph

Popular baby names in Arizona, 2024

Flag of Arizona
Flag of Arizona

The state of Arizona will likely welcome more than 77,000 babies in 2024.

What will the top baby names of the year be? Olivia and Liam, according to provisional data released in late December, 2024, by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Here are Arizona’s projected top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Olivia
  2. Emma
  3. Isabella
  4. Sophia
  5. Amelia
  6. Mia
  7. Camila
  8. Charlotte
  9. Sofia
  10. Luna
  11. Evelyn
  12. Aurora
  13. Aria
  14. Violet
  15. Ava
  16. Gianna
  17. Penelope
  18. Eliana
  19. Elena
  20. Ellie
  21. Valentina
  22. Hazel
  23. Layla
  24. Mila
  25. Lily
  26. Emily
  27. Harper
  28. Ivy
  29. Scarlett
  30. Chloe
  31. Emilia
  32. Leilani
  33. Delilah
  34. Eleanor
  35. Elizabeth
  36. Victoria
  37. Nora
  38. Avery
  39. Maria
  40. Abigail
  41. Nova
  42. Ella
  43. Madison
  44. Liliana
  45. Grace
  46. Daisy
  47. Natalia
  48. Genesis
  49. Athena
  50. Maya

Boy names

  1. Liam
  2. Noah
  3. Mateo
  4. Sebastian
  5. Oliver
  6. Elijah
  7. Alexander
  8. Benjamin
  9. Daniel
  10. Julian
  11. Santiago
  12. Michael
  13. James
  14. Ethan
  15. Aiden
  16. David
  17. Angel
  18. Logan
  19. Mason
  20. Jacob
  21. Ezra
  22. Gabriel
  23. William
  24. Adrian
  25. Isaac
  26. Levi
  27. Anthony
  28. Lucas
  29. Joseph
  30. Ezekiel
  31. Wyatt
  32. Elias
  33. Luke
  34. Samuel
  35. Jose
  36. Henry
  37. Isaiah
  38. Jackson
  39. Matthew
  40. Jayden
  41. Jesus
  42. Luis
  43. Jack
  44. Theodore
  45. Dylan
  46. Carter
  47. Owen
  48. Andrew
  49. Lincoln
  50. Grayson

In the girls’ top 10, Sofia replaced Evelyn.

In the boys’ top 10, Alexander, Daniel, and Julian replaced Santiago, Ezra, and Levi.

And Juniper, which was the #1 girl name in Arizona’s Coconino County in 2022, only managed to rank 90th state-wide in 2024.

If you’d like to see Arizona’s projected rankings for 2023, you can find them in this post.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Arizona (public domain)

Popular baby names in New York City, 2023

Flag of New York
Flag of New York

Last year, New York City welcomed 98,389 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma (for the seventh year in a row) and Liam (for the eighth year in a row), according to the New York City Health Department.

Here are NYC’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Emma, 382 baby girls
  2. Mia
  3. Sophia
  4. Olivia
  5. Isabella
  6. Amelia
  7. Leah (ranked 53rd for girls nationally in 2023)
  8. Chloe (26th)
  9. Luna
  10. Sofia (12th)

Boy names

  1. Liam, 743 baby boys
  2. Noah
  3. David (ranked 27th for boys nationally in 2023)
  4. Lucas
  5. Jacob (36th)
  6. Ethan (25th)
  7. Joseph (29th)
  8. Dylan (34th)
  9. Michael [tie] (16th)
  10. Muhammad [tie] (272nd)

In the girls’ top 10, Chloe and Sofia replaced Ava and Esther.

In the boys’ top 10, Dylan, Michael, and Muhammad replaced Aiden, Daniel, and Alexander.

Both Dylan and Muhammad — which was the #1 boy name in England and Wales last year — are new to NYC’s top 10. Michael, on the other hand, was a “favorite among New Yorkers from 1980 to 2006.”

The Health Department’s news release also mentioned dozens of other Big Apple baby names, including…

Girl namesBoy names
Esther (ranked 12th), Miriam (15th), Aurora (41st), Violet (45th), Rose (52nd), Eleanor (56th), Gemma (78th), Athena (79th), Savannah (85th), Iris (87th), Daisy (93rd), Sage (100th)Alexander (ranked 17th), Zion (62nd), Leonardo (65th), Milan (70th), Adonis (76th), Amari (78th)

Finally, here’s a link to New York City’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to check them out.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of New York (public domain)

Minnesota family with 22 children

kinderfest

In the mid-20th century, Alvin Joseph Miller and Lucille Rose Miller (née Kahnke) of Waseca, Minnesota, had 22 children — 15 girls and 7 boys.

Here are the names of all 22 siblings:

  1. Ramona Mary (born in 1940), who became a Franciscan nun
  2. Alvin Joseph, Jr. (b. 1942)
  3. Rose Ann (b. 1943)
  4. Kathleen Edith (b. 1945)
  5. Robert Vincent (b. 1946)
  6. Patricia Jean (b. 1947)
  7. Mary Lucille (b. 1948), nicknamed “Marylu”
  8. Diane Margaret (b. 1949)
  9. John Charles (b. 1950)
  10. Janet Irene (b. 1951)
  11. Linda Louise (b. 1953)
  12. Virginia Therese (b. 1954)
  13. Helen Rita (b. 1955), who wrote a book about growing up in a large family
  14. Arthur Lawrence (b. 1956)
  15. Dolores Maria (b. 1957)
  16. Martin Peter (b. 1959)
  17. Pauline Carmel (b. 1960)
  18. Alice Callista (b. 1961)
  19. Angela Mary (b. 1962)
  20. Marcia Marie (b. 1963)
  21. Gregory Eugene (b. 1964)
  22. Damien Francis (b. 1966)

Eight of the children had been born by April of 1950, when the Miller family was interviewed for the U.S. Census:

The Miller family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Miller family (1950 U.S. Census)

Alvin and Lucille raised their children on a 300-acre farm that included a seven-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s how Diane (#8) described her childhood:

I remember a lot of rides in the wheelbarrow from the granary to the barn. I remember a lot of grinding feed, a lot of egg washing and packing, a lot of sitting by the wood stove in the basement, singing songs as we candled eggs.

Which of the names above do you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Miller family a few months ago! (Destiny also told me about the Jones family of West Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Popular baby names in Paris, 2023

Flag of France
Flag of France

We’ve already looked at the top names in France, so now let’s check out the top names in France’s capital city, Paris.

Last year, Paris’ most popular baby names were Louise and Gabriel.

Here are the city’s top 50+ girl names and top 50 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Louise, 190 baby girls
  2. Alma, 189
  3. Alice, 138
  4. Anna, 135
  5. Olivia, 134
  6. Jeanne, 129
  7. Gabrielle, 118
  8. Emma, 114
  9. Adèle, 112
  10. Iris, 111 (tie)
  11. Rose, 111 (tie)
  12. Léa, 108
  13. Chloé, 104
  14. Victoire, 99
  15. Jade, 97
  16. Lina, 94
  17. Victoria, 93
  18. Charlie, 91
  19. Lou, 90
  20. Joséphine, 89 (tie)
  21. Sofia, 89 (tie)
  22. Ava, 87 (4-way tie)
  23. Diane, 87 (4-way tie)
  24. Mia, 87 (4-way tie)
  25. Sarah, 87 (4-way tie)
  26. Zoé, 86
  27. Ella, 85
  28. Nour, 82
  29. Alix, 81
  30. Julia, 80
  31. Suzanne, 79
  32. Juliette, 78
  33. Maya, 76 (tie)
  34. Nina, 76 (tie)
  35. Alba, 74 (3-way tie)
  36. Charlotte, 74 (3-way tie)
  37. Eva, 74 (3-way tie)
  38. Agathe, 73 (tie)
  39. Romy, 73 (tie)
  40. Mariam, 72
  41. Fatoumata, 69
  42. Inaya, 68
  43. Aminata, 64
  44. Elena, 62
  45. Ambre, 61 (tie)
  46. Inès, 61 (tie)
  47. Apolline, 60
  48. Romane, 59
  49. Alya, 57 (3-way tie)
  50. Céleste, 57 (3-way tie)
  51. Giulia, 57 (3-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Gabriel, 321 baby boys
  2. Adam, 240
  3. Raphaël, 235
  4. Louis, 191
  5. Noah, 188
  6. Isaac, 181
  7. Mohamed, 175
  8. Arthur, 172
  9. Gaspard, 152
  10. Joseph, 147
  11. Léon, 137
  12. Lucas, 131
  13. Victor, 127
  14. Léo, 124
  15. Paul, 123
  16. Alexandre, 121 (tie)
  17. Ibrahim, 121 (tie)
  18. Aaron, 111
  19. Sacha, 108
  20. Andrea, 105 (tie)
  21. Ismaël, 105 (tie)
  22. Liam, 103
  23. Augustin, 92 (tie)
  24. Oscar, 92 (tie)
  25. Côme, 91
  26. Maël, 87
  27. Auguste, 86 (tie)
  28. Noé, 86 (tie)
  29. Jules, 84
  30. Antoine, 83
  31. Abel, 81 (tie)
  32. Timothée, 81 (tie)
  33. Hugo, 80
  34. Marceau, 78 (3-way tie)
  35. Marius, 78 (3-way tie)
  36. Théo, 78 (3-way tie)
  37. Charles, 77
  38. Simon, 76
  39. Eliott, 74
  40. Basile, 72
  41. Eden, 71
  42. Octave, 70 (tie)
  43. Zayn, 70 (tie)
  44. Léonard, 69 (tie)
  45. Nathan, 69 (tie)
  46. Georges, 67
  47. Mathis, 66
  48. Ethan, 65 (tie)
  49. Maxime, 65 (tie)
  50. Camille, 64

How interesting that Ambre, the second-most-popular girl name in France, just barely made the top 50 in Paris.

The girls’ top 100 included Raphaëlle (63rd), Olympe (76th), Brune (83rd), and Marie (99th).

The boys’ top 100 included Gustave (67th), Naël (78th), Malo (83rd), and Aurèle (96th).

Here’s a selection of names from lower down in the rankings, which includes all names given to at least five Parisian babies (of either one gender or the other) per year.

Girl namesBoy names
Castille (25 baby girls), Gisèle (19), Sibylle (17), Ninon (14), Ysé (12), Olympia (11), Alizée (6), Amicie (5), Domitille (5), Lital (5)Hippolyte (26 baby boys), Soan (26), Edouard (22), Zacharie (17), Mayeul (6), Armel (5), Doron (5), Manoé (5), Pacôme (5), Wandrille (5)

Wandrille is the French form of the Germanic name Wandregisel (which belonged to a 7th-century Catholic saint). The second element of Wandregisel is the same element upon which the name Gisèle is based.

Finally, here’s a link to Paris’ 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

P.S. Do you think the Paris Olympics will inspire more French parents to choose the girl names Olympe and Olympia in 2024?

Sources: Prénoms déclarés – Paris Data, Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Flag of France (public domain)