Joey
Masculine · “he will add”
Joey is given to both — 53,758 boys and 7,644 girls since 1880. See Joey as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Joey is what happens when a name three thousand years old gets an affectionate ending stuck on it and then refuses to give it back. It comes down through Joseph — one of the most widely carried names in the Western world — by way of Joe, and it has been written on American birth certificates in its own right for over a century. Two syllables, both open, both easy: it lands the same way in every mouth.
How old is the name Joey?
Joey first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Joey alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 47,500 people named Joey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Joey most popular?
Joey peaked in 1976, reaching #194 nationally. Today it ranks #874, 680 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Joey appears on these lists:
Works in British families too:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Joey
The story of Joey
The root is Hebrew Yosef, borne by the patriarch of Genesis and later by Joseph of Nazareth, which carried the name through Greek and Latin into nearly every language of Christian Europe. English shortened it to Joe centuries ago, and the -y ending — the same one that turned Thomas into Tommy and Robert into Bobby — produced Joey. It reached girls by a second road: Josephine, the French feminine of Joseph, clips to Jo and then to Joey just as readily. At some point in the last hundred years American parents stopped treating it as a nickname and began writing it on the certificate itself, which is where it sits now for most of the people who carry it.
Meaning
"he will add" — from Hebrew Yosef, through Joseph
The sense is a wish for increase, recorded in the Genesis account of Joseph's naming. Joey inherits it whether it arrives by way of Joseph or of Josephine, since both grow from the same Hebrew root.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Ioseph
- Joseph
- Joe
- Joey
Related forms: Yosef · Pepe · Peppino · Joep · Sepp · Jojo
Pronouncing Joey
JOH-ee
Stress on the first syllable. There is only one way to say it in English, and the spelling gives it away on sight — rarely misheard, rarely misspelled.
Nicknames for Joey
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 19631,382 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #194reached in 1976
- Change vs 2023
- +6.2%274 in 2025, from 258
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Joey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yosef in Hebrew — same name
- Pepe in Spanish — related form
- Peppino in Italian — related form
- Joep in Dutch — related form
- Sepp in German — related form
- Jojo in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Joeys among us
people named Joey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,234 born in 2025 was named Joey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tommie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Joey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tommie climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tommie's path sketches the road Joey is walking now.
Joey sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Joey is headed
Joey should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Joey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Joey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spells and sounds itself: almost no American will need it repeated, and almost none will write it down wrong.
- Works at every register — Joey on the roster, Joe when something shorter is wanted, Joseph or Josephine available if a longer legal name is preferred.
- Carried by both boys and girls, arriving from Joseph on one side and Josephine on the other, so either child has a real lineage behind it.
- Strongly represented among adults today, which means it is familiar to nearly everyone while being uncommon among children.
- It reads as a diminutive to many ears, so some people will assume it is short for something and ask what the full name is. Parents who want a formal option on paper often register Joseph or Josephine and use Joey daily.
- In Australian and British English a joey is a young kangaroo. It is a mild, mostly affectionate association rather than a problem, but it is the first thing some readers abroad will think of.
- The name leans to boys without settling there. A girl named Joey will occasionally be assumed male on forms and rosters — usually a one-sentence correction, but one that recurs.
- Currently much more common among grown adults than among children, so a child named Joey will likely share it with a coworker's father before sharing it with a classmate.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Joey to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Joey
Masculine · #874 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Joeys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 47,500 people named Joey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Joey in 2025?
- Joey ranks #874 among US boy names in 2025, with 274 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Joey?
- About 1 in every 6,234 US boys born in 2025 was named Joey — 274 in all.
- Will my child share the name Joey with classmates?
- Joey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Joey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jedidiah#874 · Coast#874 · Abner#874 · Orlando#871 · Aryan#871 · Adler#871 · Kylen#878 · Ernesto#878
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Joey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Joey and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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