Josalyn
A feminine name of English origin meaning "fair, beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 2,057 living Americans carry the first name Josalyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Josalyn today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Josalyn births was 2009 (113 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Josalyn. 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.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 166,628 Americans
Peak year
2009
113 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,649
Tracked since 1951
Census
Josalyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,834 people with the first name Josalyn, which placed it at #8,029 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
#8,029
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,834 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Josalyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josalyn is White at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Hispanic (19.4%). 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 Josalyn 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 Josalyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.4% · 942
- Black or African American20.3% · 373
- Hispanic or Latino19.4% · 356
- Two or more races6.5% · 120
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 11
Popularity
Josalyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Josalyn from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 820 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Josalyn 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 Josalyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Josalyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Josalyn, while Missouri, Iowa, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Josalyn
The name Josalyn is a relatively modern English variation of the Hebrew name Joselyn, which itself is a feminine form of the male name Joseph. The name Joseph, derived from the Hebrew "Yosef," means "he will add" or "he will increase." Its origins can be traced back to the biblical figure Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, whose story is told in the Book of Genesis.
Joselyn emerged as a feminine form of Joseph during the Middle Ages, particularly in England and France. The earliest recorded instances of the name Joselyn date back to the 12th century, with notable examples including Joselyn de Loveyne, a 12th-century English noblewoman, and Joselyn de Nevill, a 13th-century English aristocrat.
In the 16th century, the spelling Josalyn began to appear, possibly as a result of regional linguistic variations or scribal errors. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this spelling was Josalyn Percy, an English landowner who lived during the reign of Henry VIII in the early 1500s.
Throughout history, the name Josalyn has been borne by several notable individuals, including Josalyn Villiers, a 17th-century English noblewoman who was a mistress of King Charles II. In the 18th century, Josalyn Heyward was a prominent American socialite and landowner from South Carolina.
In the 19th century, Josalyn Kellogg was an American educator and pioneer in the field of deaf education, founding several schools for the deaf in the United States. Another notable figure was Josalyn Fowler, a British suffragette and activist for women's rights in the late 1800s.
More recently, in the 20th century, Josalyn Dombret was a French novelist and poet who published several works exploring themes of love, loss, and the human condition. Additionally, Josalyn Keller was an American actress and singer who gained fame on Broadway in the 1960s and 1970s.
People
Josalyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Josalyn 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
Josalyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Josalyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,057 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Josalyn 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 166,628 US residents.
Is Josalyn a common name?
We classify Josalyn as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,113 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Josalyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Josalyn was 2009, when 113 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Josalyn is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Josalyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,834 people with the name Josalyn, or 0.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,029 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 Josalyn 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 Josalyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Josalyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,840 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Josalyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josalyn is White at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Hispanic (19.4%). 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 Josalyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Josalyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.4% (942 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 Josalyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Josalyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Josalyn 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 Josalyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Josalyn 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 Josalyn 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 Josalyn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.