Jo
- Pronunciation
- [Jo]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Abbreviation Of Names Like Joanna And Josephine. Also Used As A Prefix In Compound Names Like Jobeth And Jolisa.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Jo
Jo functions as a short form of feminine names beginning with the syllable Jo-, most notably Joanna and Josephine, both of which carry deep Hebrew roots. Joanna descends from the Hebrew Yochanan, meaning "God is gracious," while Josephine traces to Yosef, meaning "God will increase" or "he will add." As an independent name, Jo carries the warmth and directness of these longer forms in the most compact possible package — a single open syllable that needs nothing added to feel complete. It also appears as a prefix element in compound names, amplifying its flexibility across different naming traditions and creating a sense of compound identity.
Jo first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1933 and reached its peak in 1947 at rank #51, accumulating more than 130,000 top-1000 births over its chart run — a substantial total for a one-syllable name. The name last appeared in the top-1000 in 1958 at rank #91, having been a genuine fixture of American feminine naming through the 1940s and 1950s.
Jo's single-syllable simplicity gives it a confident, no-nonsense character well suited to both formal registration and everyday use. It carries a distinct mid-century American spirit. Recorded variants in the Jo family include Jolene, Jolisa, and Jonell — each extending the short form into a distinctive longer shape with its own personality.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jo
US Popularity History (1933–1958)
Annual US births named Jo by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1954 with 8,052 girls named Jo (girl rank #53 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1958, ranked #91 for girls (5,226 US births). That's 38 places below its 1954 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Variant Forms
Looking for names like Jo?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Jo to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jo against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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