Jo
Jo is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 33 births. Its best rank was 51st, in 1947.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 330.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 19548,052 births
- Best rank
- #51in 1947
- Since 1881
- 180,866people given the name
The story in the numbers
179,020 girls have been named Jo in the United States since 1881, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1954, with 8,052 births — 0.41% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 33 births in 2024, against 8,052 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1950, and the 1950s alone account for 36%. It has spent 99 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 26 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,846 boys have also been given it, 1.0% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Jo | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 69 | |
| 1890s | 140 | |
| 1900s | 311 | |
| 1910s | 1,192 | |
| 1920s | 6,896 | |
| 1930s | 28,653 | |
| 1940s | 48,449 | |
| 1950s | 63,941 | |
| 1960s | 20,195 | |
| 1970s | 5,918 | |
| 1980s | 1,985 | |
| 1990s | 609 | |
| 2000s | 223 | |
| 2010s | 246 | |
| 2020s | 193 |
In 1954, its biggest year
Jo was the 53rd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1954 were Mary, Linda, Deborah, Patricia and Susan. See all of 1954.
Names that rose and fell with Jo
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Patriciapeak 1951
- Deloisepeak 1953
- Delorisepeak 1948
- Janetpeak 1954
- Georgannpeak 1953
- Janicepeak 1951
- Deloispeak 1948
- Marciapeak 1951
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.