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Josh vs Mason

How Josh and Mason 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

Josh

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Abbreviation Of Joshua Jehovah Is Salvation.

Mason

Male · French

Meaning: Stone Worker

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Josh (boys) vs Mason (boys), 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 Josh Mason
Peak year (most US births) 2007 — 316 boys 2011 — 19,528 boys
Peak rank #726 #2
Most recent rank (2009) #976 (205 births) #39 (6,291 births)
Total US births since 1880 2,656 310,019
Last 10 years (2000–2009) 2,656 100,150

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Mason reached 19,528 US births in 2011 — 19,212 more than Josh's peak count.

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 boys-name list.

Josh — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #694 57
2 Massachusetts #792 21
3 Florida #839 66
4 New York #883 92

Mason — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Mississippi #8 1,093
2 West Virginia #9 732
3 Pennsylvania #11 4,279
4 North Carolina #11 3,574
5 Hawaii #12 359

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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 →