Humanverse

Jocelyn vs Joclyn

American parents have registered 113,412 Jocelyns since 1880, against 644 Joclyns. Jocelyn is still ahead, with 788 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jocelyn against Joclyn, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jocelyn Joclyn

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jocelyn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1900 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1978, when Jocelyn had 834 and Joclyn had 19.

Side by side

  Jocelyn Joclyn
Total US births 113,412644
Most in one year 5,30431
Babies in 2025 788under 5
Estimated living today 110,000630
Median age today 2127
Peak year 20072010
Best rank 50th girls4,608th girls
Rank in 2025 393rdunranked
First recorded 19001966
Girls / boys 113,061 / 351644 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Joclyns alive today are over 27; half the Jocelyns are over 21. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jocelyn and Joclyn.