Joy — #442 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Joy

The Social Security Administration has registered 139,933 babies named Joy between 1885 and 2024, spanning 140 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Joy currently holds the #442 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1957, when 2,929 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Joy performed strongest in the 1950s, accumulating 24,518 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Joy shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 11,839 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Texas and New York. In total, SSA state-level files list Joy in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Joy in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 139,933 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.