Joey
A diminutive of Joseph, of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add".
Name Census estimates that about 54,771 living Americans carry the first name Joey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Joey today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joey births was 1962 (1,572 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joey. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Joey with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
55K
~ 1 in 6,258 Americans
Peak year
1962
1,572 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#889
Tracked since 1915
Census
Joey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 57,452 people with the first name Joey, which placed it at #823 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#823
National first-name rank
People counted
57K
57,452 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
19.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joey is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Joey described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Joey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.6% · 37,122
- Hispanic or Latino17.5% · 10,028
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.2% · 4,126
- Black or African American6.2% · 3,583
- Two or more races3.2% · 1,851
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 742
Gender
Gender distribution for Joey
Joey leans heavily male at 87.7% of total registrations, but 7,497 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Joey as a male name
- Ranked #889 in 2024
- 266 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (1,529 births)
Joey as a female name
- Ranked #1,375 in 2024
- 164 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1974 (232 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joey leans strongly male. 51,153 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 6,294 female bearers (11.0%).
Popularity
Joey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joey from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 12,856 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joey by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Joey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joeys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Joey, while Alaska, Vermont, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,111 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joey
The name Joey is an English diminutive form of the name Joseph, which has its origins in the Hebrew name Yosef. The name Yosef is derived from the Hebrew roots yasaf, meaning "to add" or "to increase," and Yahweh, the name of God. It is believed to have been in use since ancient times, with one of the earliest recorded instances being in the Book of Genesis, where Yosef is the name of the son of Jacob and Rachel.
The name Joseph gained widespread popularity due to its significance in the Christian tradition, as it was the name of Joseph, the husband of Mary and the earthly father of Jesus. This contributed to its widespread use throughout Europe and the English-speaking world.
Joey as a diminutive form of Joseph emerged in the Middle Ages, possibly as early as the 13th century. It was commonly used as a friendly or familiar form of the name Joseph, particularly in informal settings or among family and close friends.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Joey was Joey Grimaldi, an English actor and comedian who lived from 1778 to 1837. He was a prominent figure in the early development of pantomime and is considered a pioneer of modern clowning.
In literature, the name Joey is famously associated with the character Joey Bagstock from Charles Dickens' novel "Dombey and Son," published in 1848. Bagstock is a boisterous and bombastic character, known for his exaggerated military manner and his catchphrase "Joe Bagstock, sir!"
Another notable historical figure with the name Joey was Joey Smallwood, a Canadian politician who served as the first Premier of Newfoundland from 1949 to 1972. He played a pivotal role in Newfoundland's transition from a British colony to a province of Canada.
In the world of sports, Joey Maxim, an American professional boxer who held the light heavyweight world championship from 1950 to 1952, was a prominent figure. He was born in 1922 and passed away in 2001.
Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Ross Hyman in 1951, was the lead singer and songwriter for the influential punk rock band the Ramones. He was known for his distinctive vocals and rebellious attitude, and is considered an icon of the punk rock movement. Ramone passed away in 2001.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Joey, illustrating its enduring popularity and cultural significance across various fields and eras.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Joey
People
Joey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Joey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 54,771 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joey going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 6,258 US residents.
Is Joey a common name?
We classify Joey as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 60,971 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joey most popular?
The single biggest year for Joey was 1962, when 1,572 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joey is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 57,452 people with the name Joey, or 19.02 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #823 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Joey in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Joey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joey leans strongly male. 51,153 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 6,294 female bearers (11.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Joey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joey is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Joey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.6% (37,122 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Joey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joey a male name?
Yes, 87.7% of people registered as Joey in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Joey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joey in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Joey can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Joey?
Want to know how many Americans are named Joey? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.