Joah
Joah was given to 74 boys in 2025, #2,028 among boys’ names; 1,246 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,230 Americans named Joah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Joah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Joah?
#2,028 among boys’ names, 2025
Joah rose from #2,285 in 2015 to #2,028 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 30.3 to 43.3 per million.
79 babies in 2023, the peak
Joah peaked in 2023, when 79 boys were given it, #1,959 among boys’ names. The 79 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 100% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 74 | #2,028 | 43.3 |
| 2024 | 71 | #2,108 | 41.2 |
| 2023 | 79 | #1,959 | 46.2 |
| 2022 | 49 | #2,688 | 28.1 |
| 2021 | 57 | #2,395 | 32.6 |
| 2020 | 43 | #2,817 | 24.9 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,442 | 30.7 |
| 2018 | 49 | #2,593 | 27.0 |
| 2017 | 50 | #2,546 | 27.0 |
| 2016 | 49 | #2,570 | 25.8 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 58 | #2,285 | 30.3 |
| 2014 | 61 | #2,216 | 31.8 |
| 2013 | 37 | #3,026 | 19.6 |
| 2012 | 39 | #2,979 | 20.6 |
| 2011 | 50 | #2,487 | 26.3 |
| 2010 | 39 | #2,981 | 20.3 |
| 2009 | 41 | #2,924 | 20.7 |
| 2008 | 32 | #3,454 | 15.7 |
| 2007 | 41 | #2,891 | 19.8 |
| 2006 | 32 | #3,346 | 15.6 |
| 2005 | 31 | #3,276 | 15.5 |
| 2004 | 24 | #3,793 | 12.1 |
| 2003 | 25 | #3,567 | 12.7 |
| 2002 | 20 | #4,100 | 10.3 |
| 2001 | 18 | #4,367 | 9.3 |
| 2000 | 15 | #4,899 | 7.6 |
| 1999 | 10 | #6,251 | 5.2 |
| 1998 | 16 | #4,289 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,652 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,405 | 3.2 |
| 1995 | 12 | #4,943 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,312 | 3.6 |
| 1991 | 8 | #6,201 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 5 | #7,840 | 2.6 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,751 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 11 | #3,739 | 6.1 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,257 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,837 | 4.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Joah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Joah has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 38 years of records.
Girls and boys named Joah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Joah, and how old are they?
1,230 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,246 Americans ever recorded as Joah. The median Joah alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 972 people named Joah (94 women and girls, 878 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 869 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 11 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 54 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 434 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 732 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 Joah born?
The states with the most babies named Joah are Texas, Florida and California, with 83% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #1,602 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 11 | #1,159 | 0.9× |
| California | 8 | #1,911 | 0.3× |
| New York | 6 | #1,654 | 0.2× |
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 Joah 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 530,640 babies since 1880, Joah is the fourth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 79 of their 887 babies (8.9%), again the fourth most given.
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 Joah
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 Joah and names like it
- Compare Joah and JoeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sJoah peaked in 2023.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Joah since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Joah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Joah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.