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Joanna vs Olivia

How Joanna and Olivia compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Joanna

Female · Hebrew

Meaning: Gift From God

Olivia

Female · Romanian

Meaning: Olive Tree

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Joanna (girls) vs Olivia (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Joanna Olivia
Peak year (most US births) 1984 — 3,332 girls 2014 — 19,836 girls
Peak rank #88 #2
Most recent rank (2025) #306 (997 births) #1 (13,544 births)
Total US births since 1880 36,616 512,241
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 11,495 170,562

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Olivia reached 19,836 US births in 2014 — 16,504 more than Joanna's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Joanna births Olivia births
1990 Olivia 0 4,628

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Joanna — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Alaska #155 22
2 Hawaii #167 25
3 Ohio #205 507
4 South Dakota #208 17
5 New Hampshire #223 16

Olivia — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Illinois #1 5,942
2 Washington #1 3,650
3 Connecticut #1 1,826
4 New York #1 9,099
5 Oklahoma #1 1,933

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →