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Joy vs Evelyn

How Joy and Evelyn 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

Joy

Female · French

Meaning: Jewel: Rejoicing.

Evelyn

Female · Celtic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Joy (girls) vs Evelyn (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 Joy Evelyn
Peak year (most US births) 2017 — 968 girls 1921 — 14,278 girls
Peak rank #335 #12
Most recent rank (2025) #419 (747 births) #8 (9,123 births)
Total US births since 1880 17,976 555,984
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 8,122 97,423

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Evelyn reached 14,278 US births in 1921 — 13,310 more than Joy'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 girls-name list.

Joy — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #318 251
2 Maryland #320 170
3 California #322 1,058
4 Texas #335 917
5 Florida #340 503

Evelyn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Minnesota #3 2,360
2 Wisconsin #3 2,223
3 Oregon #4 1,348
4 Iowa #4 1,220
5 Idaho #4 719

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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 →