Joab
Joab was given to 60 boys in 2025, #2,319 among boys’ names; 1,000 Americans have been recorded with it since 1965 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Joab by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Joab?
#2,319 among boys’ names, 2025
Joab rose from #3,398 in 2015 to #2,319 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 17.2 to 35.1 per million.
60 babies in 2025, the peak
Joab peaked in 2025, when 60 boys were given it, #2,319 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 45 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 60 | #2,319 | 35.1 |
| 2024 | 45 | #2,851 | 26.1 |
| 2023 | 40 | #3,082 | 23.4 |
| 2022 | 41 | #3,031 | 23.5 |
| 2021 | 42 | #2,940 | 24.0 |
| 2020 | 25 | #4,068 | 14.5 |
| 2019 | 31 | #3,599 | 17.3 |
| 2018 | 32 | #3,470 | 17.6 |
| 2017 | 29 | #3,714 | 15.7 |
| 2016 | 30 | #3,638 | 15.8 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 | #3,398 | 17.2 |
| 2014 | 23 | #4,317 | 12.0 |
| 2013 | 35 | #3,154 | 18.5 |
| 2012 | 17 | #5,361 | 9.0 |
| 2011 | 21 | #4,577 | 11.1 |
| 2010 | 16 | #5,592 | 8.3 |
| 2009 | 21 | #4,659 | 10.6 |
| 2008 | 24 | #4,187 | 11.8 |
| 2007 | 31 | #3,474 | 14.9 |
| 2006 | 20 | #4,592 | 9.7 |
| 2005 | 17 | #4,925 | 8.5 |
| 2004 | 20 | #4,337 | 10.1 |
| 2003 | 16 | #4,916 | 8.1 |
| 2002 | 22 | #3,851 | 11.3 |
| 2001 | 16 | #4,770 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 15 | #4,898 | 7.6 |
| 1999 | 17 | #4,229 | 8.9 |
| 1998 | 17 | #4,097 | 8.9 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,553 | 7.4 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,912 | 9.0 |
| 1995 | 16 | #3,947 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 13 | #4,649 | 6.7 |
| 1993 | 16 | #3,910 | 8.2 |
| 1992 | 10 | #5,410 | 5.0 |
| 1991 | 15 | #3,899 | 7.4 |
| 1990 | 14 | #4,073 | 6.8 |
| 1989 | 11 | #4,640 | 5.5 |
| 1988 | 7 | #6,082 | 3.7 |
| 1987 | 8 | #5,184 | 4.3 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,607 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 9 | #4,487 | 4.9 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,750 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,171 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,295 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,835 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,203 | 3.9 |
| 1979 | 10 | #3,927 | 5.8 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,256 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,307 | 3.0 |
| 1976 | 9 | #3,851 | 5.7 |
| 1975 | 5 | #5,865 | 3.2 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,279 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,328 | 3.1 |
| 1965 | 6 | #3,710 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Joab a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Joab has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Joab: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Joab, and how old are they?
An estimated 978 Americans named Joab and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 6 and 28. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 840 people named Joab (7 women and girls, 833 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 738 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Joab born?
The states with the most babies named Joab are Florida, Texas and Tennessee, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Joab with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,399 babies since 1880, Joab is the second most given (23% of them). In 2025 it was given to 60 of their 109 babies (55%), the most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Joab
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Joab and names like it
- Compare Joab and JobBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sJoab peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Joab since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Joab.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Joab alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.