Jori
A gender-neutral name of Hebrew origin meaning "my light" or "my flame".
Name Census estimates that about 2,270 living Americans carry the first name Jori. It is a predominantly female name (91.8% of registrations). The average person named Jori today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jori births was 1995 (80 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jori. 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 Jori with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 150,993 Americans
Peak year
1995
80 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,770
Tracked since 1950
Census
Jori in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,058 people with the first name Jori, which placed it at #7,424 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
#7,424
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,058 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jori
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jori is White at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.4%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Jori 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 Jori at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.8% · 1,396
- Black or African American20.4% · 419
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 108
- Two or more races4.3% · 88
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Jori
Jori leans heavily female at 91.8% of total registrations, but 196 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jori as a male name
- Ranked #7,005 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (12 births)
Jori as a female name
- Ranked #3,770 in 2024
- 40 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (72 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jori leans strongly female. 1,861 people counted with this name were female (90.2%), compared with 202 male bearers (9.8%).
Popularity
Jori: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jori from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 543 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Jori remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jori 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 Jori during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joris live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Illinois, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Jori, while Washington, Ohio, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 53 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jori
The name Jori is believed to have its origins in the Finnish language, where it is a diminutive form of the name Joro, which itself is a shortened version of the name Joroinen. The name Joroinen is derived from the Finnish word "joro," meaning "steep" or "sloping." This connection suggests that the name Jori may have initially been associated with people living in hilly or mountainous regions of Finland.
While the name's roots can be traced back to Finland, its use has spread to other parts of the world, particularly to neighboring Scandinavian countries. In Sweden, for example, the name Jori is sometimes used as a variant spelling of the more common name Jörgen, which is the Swedish form of the name George.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jori dates back to the 16th century, when a Finnish nobleman named Jori Flemming lived in the town of Turku. Flemming was a prominent figure in the Finnish aristocracy and played a significant role in the political and military affairs of the region during his lifetime, which spanned from 1529 to 1598.
Another historical figure with the name Jori was Jori Arppe, a Finnish linguist and scholar who lived from 1836 to 1887. Arppe made significant contributions to the study of Finnish grammar and phonology, and his work helped to establish Finnish as a language with its own distinct rules and structure.
In the realm of literature, the name Jori is associated with Jori Seppänen, a Finnish author and poet who was born in 1925 and passed away in 2006. Seppänen's works often explored themes of nature, spirituality, and the human condition, and he is considered one of the most important Finnish writers of the 20th century.
Moving beyond Finland, the name Jori has also been used by individuals in other parts of the world. For example, Jori Lehterä is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who was born in 1987 and currently plays for the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Another noteworthy individual with the name Jori is Jori Mundurá, a Brazilian indigenous leader and environmental activist who was born in 1967. Mundurá has been a vocal advocate for the rights of indigenous communities and has worked to protect the Amazon rainforest from deforestation and environmental degradation.
While the name Jori has deep roots in the Finnish language and culture, its use has spread across borders and continents, with individuals bearing this name making their mark in various fields throughout history.
People
Jori + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jori 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
Jori: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jori?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,270 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jori 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 150,993 US residents.
Is Jori a common name?
We classify Jori as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,400 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jori most popular?
The single biggest year for Jori was 1995, when 80 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jori is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jori in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,058 people with the name Jori, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,424 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 Jori 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 Jori?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jori leans strongly female. 1,861 people counted with this name were female (90.2%), compared with 202 male bearers (9.8%). 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 Jori?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jori is White at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.4%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Jori most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jori in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.8% (1,396 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 Jori in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jori a female name?
Yes, 91.8% of people registered as Jori in the SSA data are female. 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 Jori still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jori 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 Jori 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 Jori?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.