Humanverse

Joyceann vs Joycelyn

American parents have registered 6,622 Joycelyns since 1880, against 277 Joyceanns. Joycelyn is still ahead, with 16 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Joyceann against Joycelyn, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Joyceann Joycelyn

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

Joycelyn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1916 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2015, when Joyceann had 7 and Joycelyn had 16.

Side by side

  Joyceann Joycelyn
Total US births 2776,622
Most in one year 19156
Babies in 2025 under 516
Estimated living today 1905,000
Median age today 7353
Peak year 19441955
Best rank 1,967th girls763rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked6,838th
First recorded 19311916
Girls / boys 277 / 06,622 / 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 Joyceanns alive today are over 73; half the Joycelyns are over 53. That is 20 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: Joyceann and Joycelyn.