Journey
Journey was given to 757 girls in 2025, #411 among girls’ names; 22,893 Americans have been recorded with it since 1981 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 22,700 Americans named Journey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 6 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Journey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Journey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Journey is “a female given name from English.”
From journey at the end of the 20th century.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Journey?
#411 among girls’ names, 2025
Journey fell from #274 in 2015 to #411 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.65 to 0.47 per 1,000.
1,504 babies in 2018, the peak
Journey peaked in 2018, when 1,504 babies were given it (1,397 girls, #226 among girls’ names). The 836 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 56% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 757 | #411 | 0.47 |
| 2024 | 961 | #320 | 0.59 |
| 2023 | 933 | #332 | 0.58 |
| 2022 | 1,025 | #312 | 0.62 |
| 2021 | 1,178 | #264 | 0.72 |
| 2020 | 1,095 | #292 | 0.68 |
| 2019 | 1,298 | #245 | 0.77 |
| 2018 | 1,397 | #226 | 0.82 |
| 2017 | 1,167 | #276 | 0.68 |
| 2016 | 1,219 | #262 | 0.69 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,157 | #274 | 0.65 |
| 2014 | 1,126 | #288 | 0.63 |
| 2013 | 960 | #335 | 0.55 |
| 2012 | 958 | #327 | 0.54 |
| 2011 | 867 | #371 | 0.49 |
| 2010 | 754 | #419 | 0.42 |
| 2009 | 613 | #498 | 0.33 |
| 2008 | 527 | #591 | 0.28 |
| 2007 | 422 | #690 | 0.22 |
| 2006 | 331 | #821 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 343 | #772 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 259 | #930 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 265 | #900 | 0.15 |
| 2002 | 239 | #936 | 0.13 |
| 2001 | 235 | #940 | 0.13 |
| 2000 | 168 | #1,190 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 217 | #951 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 106 | #1,559 | 0.06 |
| 1997 | 59 | #2,292 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 62 | #2,188 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 43 | #2,805 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 27 | #3,938 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 14 | #6,408 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,819 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 17 | #5,515 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,642 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,119 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,038 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 10 | #7,010 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 12 | #5,928 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,549 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 5 | #10,980 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,491 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Journey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 22,893 Americans recorded as Journey, 91% are girls and 9% boys. In 2025 it went to 757 girls and 79 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Journey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Journey, and how old are they?
22,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 22,893 Americans ever recorded as Journey. The median Journey alive today is 10 years old; half are between 6 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 13,878 people named Journey (12,629 women and girls, 1,249 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,511 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 326 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,940 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 15,500 |
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 Journey born?
The states with the most babies named Journey are Texas, California and Georgia, with 26% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 87 | #432 | 0.9× |
| California | 58 | #560 | 0.5× |
| Georgia | 47 | #227 | 1.7× |
| Florida | 46 | #409 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 44 | #293 | 1.3× |
| Ohio | 34 | #327 | 1.1× |
| Virginia | 30 | #278 | 1.0× |
| New York | 27 | #618 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 27 | #393 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 26 | #422 | 0.7× |
Where Journey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Journey is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1981 it was given 1.8 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 girls’ 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 Journey 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 52,455 babies since 1880, Journey is the most given (44% of them). In 2025 it was given to 836 of their 2,750 babies (30%), the second 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 Journey
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 Journey and names like it
- Compare Journey and JourneeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sJourney peaked in 2018.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Journey since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Journey: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Journey.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Journey alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.