Joao
Joao was given to 121 boys in 2025, #1,471 among boys’ names; 2,353 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,250 Americans named Joao and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 6 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Joao by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Joao mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Joao is “a male given name from Portuguese.”
Borrowed from Portuguese João. Doublet of John.
/d͡ʒoʊˈaʊ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Joao?
#1,471 among boys’ names, 2025
Joao rose from #2,881 in 2015 to #1,471 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 21.4 to 70.8 per million.
135 babies in 2024, the peak
Joao peaked in 2024, when 135 boys were given it, #1,391 among boys’ names. The 121 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 121 | #1,471 | 70.8 |
| 2024 | 135 | #1,391 | 78.4 |
| 2023 | 107 | #1,628 | 62.6 |
| 2022 | 96 | #1,740 | 55.0 |
| 2021 | 79 | #1,920 | 45.2 |
| 2020 | 76 | #1,930 | 44.0 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,443 | 30.7 |
| 2018 | 57 | #2,335 | 31.4 |
| 2017 | 60 | #2,223 | 32.4 |
| 2016 | 51 | #2,493 | 26.9 |
Every recorded year (65)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 41 | #2,881 | 21.4 |
| 2014 | 48 | #2,559 | 25.0 |
| 2013 | 38 | #2,973 | 20.1 |
| 2012 | 38 | #3,026 | 20.0 |
| 2011 | 41 | #2,874 | 21.6 |
| 2010 | 36 | #3,147 | 18.8 |
| 2009 | 57 | #2,306 | 28.7 |
| 2008 | 61 | #2,194 | 29.9 |
| 2007 | 43 | #2,779 | 20.7 |
| 2006 | 63 | #2,087 | 30.7 |
| 2005 | 63 | #1,992 | 31.5 |
| 2004 | 47 | #2,393 | 23.7 |
| 2003 | 38 | #2,648 | 19.2 |
| 2002 | 52 | #2,074 | 26.8 |
| 2001 | 65 | #1,750 | 33.5 |
| 2000 | 41 | #2,354 | 20.9 |
| 1999 | 28 | #2,974 | 14.6 |
| 1998 | 31 | #2,675 | 16.2 |
| 1997 | 23 | #3,204 | 12.2 |
| 1996 | 18 | #3,744 | 9.5 |
| 1995 | 22 | #3,140 | 11.6 |
| 1994 | 29 | #2,580 | 15.0 |
| 1993 | 24 | #2,894 | 12.2 |
| 1992 | 30 | #2,429 | 15.0 |
| 1991 | 22 | #2,948 | 10.9 |
| 1990 | 27 | #2,517 | 13.1 |
| 1989 | 30 | #2,262 | 15.0 |
| 1988 | 20 | #2,796 | 10.4 |
| 1987 | 18 | #2,883 | 9.6 |
| 1986 | 17 | #2,942 | 9.2 |
| 1985 | 16 | #3,010 | 8.7 |
| 1984 | 13 | #3,361 | 7.2 |
| 1983 | 15 | #2,993 | 8.4 |
| 1982 | 16 | #2,902 | 8.8 |
| 1981 | 27 | #2,015 | 15.1 |
| 1980 | 29 | #1,930 | 16.3 |
| 1979 | 31 | #1,808 | 18.0 |
| 1978 | 26 | #1,940 | 15.8 |
| 1977 | 28 | #1,842 | 17.0 |
| 1976 | 20 | #2,286 | 12.7 |
| 1975 | 18 | #2,398 | 11.5 |
| 1974 | 24 | #1,910 | 15.3 |
| 1973 | 23 | #1,901 | 14.8 |
| 1972 | 17 | #2,286 | 10.5 |
| 1971 | 25 | #1,804 | 14.1 |
| 1970 | 19 | #2,090 | 10.2 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,158 | 3.4 |
| 1968 | 8 | #3,229 | 4.6 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,075 | 2.5 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,566 | 4.5 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,541 | 4.6 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,658 | 4.5 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,628 | 4.7 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,255 | 8.2 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,619 | 10.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Joao a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Joao has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 65 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Joao: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Joao, and how old are they?
2,250 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 2,353 Americans ever recorded as Joao. The median Joao alive today is 17 years old; half are between 6 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 8,843 people named Joao (19 women and girls, 8,824 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,676 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.3 times 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 247 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 327 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 715 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 957 |
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 Joao born?
The states with the most babies named Joao are Texas, California and Massachusetts, with 53% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Massachusetts is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 17 | #1,235 | 0.4× |
| California | 15 | #1,272 | 1.0× |
| Massachusetts | 11 | #450 | 6.0× |
| New Jersey | 8 | #798 | 2.5× |
| New York | 7 | #1,490 | 0.9× |
| Connecticut | 7 | #416 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,161 | 0.3× |
| Virginia | 5 | #1,166 | 0.2× |
| Indiana | 5 | #1,017 | 0.1× |
Where Joao is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Joao is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1918 it was given 6.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
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 Joao 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, Joao is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 121 of their 887 babies (14%), again the third 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 Joao
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 Joao and names like it
- Compare Joao and JoeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sJoao peaked in 2024.
- Massachusetts’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Joao since 1910.
- Portuguese namesWiktionary’s origin for Joao: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Joao.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Joao alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.