Head to head · Girls' names
Josephine vs Stella
#53 vs #52 in 2025
Stella is a whisker ahead (#52 vs #53 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Stella is stepping back from its peak, Josephine is back after a long quiet spell. On momentum, Josephine has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Josephine leads 3 measures of 6; Stella leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Josephine #48, Stella #60 — Josephine higher
- 1890s: Josephine #48, Stella #61 — Josephine higher
- 1900s: Josephine #38, Stella #67 — Josephine higher
- 1910s: Josephine #25, Stella #68 — Josephine higher
- 1920s: Josephine #35, Stella #108 — Josephine higher
- 1930s: Josephine #68, Stella #172 — Josephine higher
- 1940s: Josephine #116, Stella #197 — Josephine higher
- 1950s: Josephine #196, Stella #296 — Josephine higher
- 1960s: Josephine #297, Stella #438 — Josephine higher
- 1970s: Josephine #412, Stella #640 — Josephine higher
- 1980s: Josephine #459, Stella #882 — Josephine higher
- 1990s: Josephine #385, Stella #1082 — Josephine higher
- 2000s: Josephine #241, Stella #347 — Josephine higher
- 2010s: Josephine #137, Stella #57 — Stella higher
- 2020s: Josephine #67, Stella #45 — Stella higher
Josephine stood higher in 13 of 15 decades; Stella has held the lead since the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Josephine | Stella |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #48 | #60 |
| 1890s | #48 | #61 |
| 1900s | #38 | #67 |
| 1910s | #25 | #68 |
| 1920s | #35 | #108 |
| 1930s | #68 | #172 |
| 1940s | #116 | #197 |
| 1950s | #196 | #296 |
| 1960s | #297 | #438 |
| 1970s | #412 | #640 |
| 1980s | #459 | #882 |
| 1990s | #385 | #1082 |
| 2000s | #241 | #347 |
| 2010s | #137 | #57 |
| 2020s | #67 | #45 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Josephine
- Canada#89
Stella
- Canada#58
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Josephine
he will add
Joseph is a Hebrew sentence about God adding another son, and the feminine is French. The name arrived in English use in the early nineteenth century, went to the top of the American charts before the First World War, disappeared for three generations and has now come back — it is one of the clearest examples of the hundred-year rule, by which a name becomes usable again once nobody's grandmother has it.
a Hebrew sentence about a son being added → French builds the feminine Josephine → an empress makes it fashionable across Europe → an American peak before the First World War → back in the top hundred a century later
How it traveled
She had left America at nineteen because there was no work for a Black performer that did not humiliate her, and became a star in Paris within a year. During the war she carried messages, worked for the Free French and was decorated afterwards.
Stella
Star (Latin)
Stella is simply the Latin noun for a star, used unchanged as a given name.
stella (Latin, 'star') → Stella Maris (medieval Marian title) → Stella (Italian and Spanish given name) → Stella (English, from Sidney's sonnets)
How it traveled
The word came first: stella, star, in ordinary Latin. Medieval Christian hymnody turned it into a title for the Virgin Mary — Stella Maris, star of the sea, sung in the hymn Ave Maris Stella — and Italian and Spanish speakers kept it as a personal name.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Josephine
JO-suh-feen
Three syllables with the stress at the front and a secondary one at the back. French puts the weight on the last syllable, which some American families keep.
- Josie — The dominant short form and thoroughly current.
- Jo — Shorter and unisex, with a literary history of its own.
- Posy — An English nursery form, rare and rather charming.
Stella
STEL-uh
Stress on the first syllable. English, Italian and Spanish speakers all land on much the same sound, and it survives dictation over the phone without a spelling.
- Stell — The oldest and plainest clipping, used at home rather than on paper.
- Stellie — Affectionate form, most often heard in the early years.
- Ella — Taken from the tail of the name; also a fully established given name in its own right.
- Stevie — An occasional playful stretch rather than a standard short form.
Who has carried each name
Josephine
Josephine Baker (b. 1906) — Jazz Age superstar who became a French Resistance agent in WWII
Josephine Cochrane (b. 1839) — Invented the dishwasher
Stella
Stella McCartney (b. 1971) — Sustainable-fashion designer, Paul McCartney's daughter
Stella Adler (b. 1901) — Legendary acting teacher who trained Marlon Brando
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Josephine if you want…
- a name on the way upup 34 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itJosephine runs 3 syllables, Stella 2
Choose Stella if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsStella is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesStella is 2 syllables to Josephine's 3
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Josephine
Strengths
- Josie and Jo are both available and both are thoroughly current.
- It is elegant and long on paper with plain short forms for daily use.
- It works without alteration across most of Europe.
To consider
- It is rising fast, so it will be commoner among her contemporaries than in the record.
- Three syllables and a French ending is a formal name for a small child.
- Josephine and Josefina will both be written, depending on who is listening.
Stella
Strengths
- Four letters longer than it looks: spelled exactly as it sounds, with no variant spellings competing for it.
- The meaning is transparent to anyone who has met a Latin root — no explanation required.
- Recognized across Italian, Spanish, Polish and English, and it charts in Canada as well as the US.
To consider
- A great many people will hear Stanley Kowalski bellowing it in A Streetcar Named Desire. It is the single loudest association the name carries, and it is not going anywhere.
- Stella Artois means the name gets a beer joke now and then, mostly from adults.
- It sits in a large family of -ella and -a endings currently in wide use, so it can blend with Ella, Bella and Luna in a roll call.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Josephine and Stella in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Josephine and Stella?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Josephine and Stella — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Josephine or Stella — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Josephine or Stella?
- Stella, in 2025: Stella ranked #52 with 4,136 babies; Josephine ranked #53 with 4,126 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Josephine or Stella?
- Josephine. Over the last five years Josephine moved up 34 places; Stella moved down 10 places.
- Which is the older name, Josephine or Stella?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Josephine and Stella?
- About 123,000 people named Josephine are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 111,000 people named Stella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Josephines or Stellas in the classroom?
- Josephine will almost certainly be the only one in school. Stella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Josephine, Stella and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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